The Mental Health Reality Behind College Athletics

Photo by Conor Doherty

Contributing Writer

Juliet Legassa

College sports and athletes get a lot of hype from the outside, and their lives look glamorous. Athletes have games, team connections, school pride and access to many things other students do not have. 

People don’t see what happens after practice - when athletes go back to their rooms, exhausted, open their laptops to start homework due by midnight, and then set an early morning lift alarm. Being a college athlete isn’t just physically demanding; mentally, it can be draining in ways that aren’t obvious. 

Caraline Lambert, a rising senior on the Field Hockey team, said, “My mood can almost always depend on how my performance was in practice, or games. Even though my coaches, teammates, and others perceive me after a performance.” 

Student-athletes are balancing full academic schedules with practices, lifts, film sessions, travel, and games, with little downtime. Even when there technically is free time, most athletes are thinking about performance -- what they did wrong, what they need to improve and whether they’re doing enough in their role. Playing time isn’t guaranteed for athletes, and performance can impact self-identity. That kind of pressure doesn’t just disappear when athletics ends for the day.

The culture of sports makes this harder to talk about. Athletes grow up being told to push through pain and not make excuses. That mindset builds resilience, but it can also blur the line between being mentally tired and being mentally overwhelmed and drained. Admitting you’re struggling doesn’t always feel like an option for athletes. There’s a fear of being seen as weak or not committed enough to the team.

Oliver Collier, a sophomore on the football team, said, “Yes, it gets hard, and there are tough moments. But you know it is hard for everyone and that you are all in it together.” 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association has collected data on student-athlete mental health, and the numbers show it’s an issue. In surveys of more than 23,000 student-athletes across all divisions, the NCAA found that a significant percentage reported feeling overwhelmed by everything they had to do. 17% of male athletes, and 44% of female athletes. Rates of reported mental exhaustion and anxiety increased during the pandemic, although some numbers have improved since then; they have not returned fully to pre-pandemic levels. Women athletes consistently reported higher rates of mental distress compared to men. Many athletes also reported feeling pressure related to both academics and athletics at the same time.

The NCAA has responded by creating mental health best-practice guidelines for member schools. These guidelines state that institutions must provide access to mental health services and treat mental health with the same importance as physical health. The NCAA has also encouraged mental health first aid training for coaches and athletics staff so they can recognize warning signs and respond appropriately when athletes are struggling. 

What really matters is whether or not athletes feel comfortable using the resources that exist.

After talking to a student-athlete, and a Morgan's Message Ambassador (student athlete mental health club) Angelia Simou, a sophomore on the field hockey team, said, “I believe the issue is CAPS being our only resource. We no longer have a sport-focused therapist as we did last year, which costs athletes, as many may feel as though CAPS just ‘wouldn’t understand’ the sport aspect of their mental health.” 

Availability to resources is one thing; accessibility is another. Athletes have such tight schedules, and if they cannot make room for mental health help, they will not do it. And some athletes may hesitate to book appointments because they don’t want teammates asking questions or for their teammates to worry or know something is wrong. Others may worry about how their coaches might perceive them if they find out they aren’t doing well mentally. 

Simou said, “As both an athlete and an advocate for mental health, I think it would be very beneficial for our New Haven athletes to have a resource that can be sport-focused.”

Mental health in college athletics is further complicated because it sits at the intersection of performance and identity. For many student-athletes, their sport isn’t just a hobby or pastime. It’s who they are, and part of their identity. Athletes are hard on themselves, so when performance dips or injuries happen, the emotional impact can be hard to navigate. When you add academic stress and personal life, it becomes clear why so many athletes report feeling overwhelmed in their daily lives. 

Athletics can build discipline, confidence and lifelong friendships in collegiate sports. But expecting athletes to carry heavy mental pressure in silence doesn’t make them stronger. It mostly just makes them quieter.

The national conversation about athlete mental health has started and the data proves it’s needed. It is important to question whether campuses are creating environments where athletes feel safe enough to actually use the support systems in place or if the culture of  “just push through it” is still louder.