National Collegiate Athletic Association/Gallup Study Shows Athletic Participation Benefits Undergraduate Experience & Post-College Outcomes

Nov 1, 2020

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — For student-athletes who have competed in the pool and learned in the classroom, the value of being a collegiate athlete is without a doubt priceless.

To prove this point, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) partnered with Gallup earlier this year to conduct study on the college experiences and life outcomes of college graduates who competed in NCAA athletics in Divisions I, II or III. The data showed NCAA student-athletes engaged in important undergraduate experiences at higher rates than their nonathlete peers. Further, former student-athletes were also more likely to be thriving in many post-college domains.

The study builds on prior research Gallup conducted on behalf of the NCAA in 2016, which demonstrated that NCAA student-athletes enjoyed greater levels of thriving in their well-being and engaged in important undergraduate experiences at higher rates than their non-athlete peers.

These findings came from interviews of nearly 5,000 former NCAA student-athletes and 69,000 non-athlete graduates from the same colleges about their college experiences and current well-being.

This investigation sought to delve more deeply into the long-term experiences of U.S. college athletes, looking specifically at patterns across decades, comparing sports, NCAA membership divisions, and a variety of athlete characteristics including gender and first-generation and transfer status.These findings serve as evidence of NCAA leaders’ fulfillment of NCAA’s scholastic mission, in addition to its support of student-athletes on the field and in terms of their lifelong success. It also offers insights into how NCAA members can further promote student-athletes’ long-term wellbeing and achievement by enhancing undergraduate experiences aligned with positive outcomes for decades beyond their wins in collegiate sports.

Overall, former NCAA student-athletes are more likely to be thriving in purpose, social, community and physical well-being, and their financial wellbeing is comparable to non-athletes. These patterns persist across NCAA division, graduation cohort, gender, and race and ethnicity.

NCAA student-athletes (39%) are more likely to earn an advanced degree than non-student-athletes (32%). This difference is most pronounced among black graduates, with 49% of black student-athletes versus 39% of black non-athletes attaining an advanced degree.
NCAA student-athletes are slightly more likely (33%) than their non-athlete peers (30%) to have had a good job waiting for them upon their college graduation. Student-athletes who were first-generation college students (FGCS) (36%) are even more likely than their non-athlete FGCS peers (30%) to have had a good job waiting for them upon graduation.
NCAA student-athletes are especially likely, relative to non-athletes, to have benefited from meaningful and enriching support experiences with professors and mentors in college.
NCAA student-athletes (35%) are more likely to strongly agree their professors cared about them as a person than their peers who did not participate in NCAA athletics (28%).
NCAA athletes (27%) are also more likely to strongly agree they had a mentor in college who encouraged them to pursue their goals and dreams than their peers who did not participate in NCAA athletics (23%).
They are also slightly more likely (67%) to strongly agree they had at least one professor who made them excited about learning than their peers who did not participate in NCAA athletics (65%).
NCAA student-athletes are similar to their non-athlete peers on measures of deep and experiential learning:
- NCAA student-athletes (39%) are slightly more likely to strongly agree they worked on a project that took a semester or longer to complete than their peers who did not participate in NCAA athletics (37%).
- NCAA student-athletes are just as likely to strongly agree they had an internship or job that allowed them to apply what they were learning in the classroom as their peers who did not participate in NCAA athletics (both 31%).
NCAA student-athletes (55%) are much more likely than their non-athlete counterparts (31%) to have held a leadership position in a club or organization such as student government, a fraternity or sorority, or an athletic team.
NCAA student-athletes (70%) are more likely than their non-athlete peers (65%) to have graduated college in four years or less, and they are half as likely to have taken more than five years to graduate (6% vs. 12%).
A smaller proportion of NCAA student-athletes (22%) than non-athletes (38%) transferred to the institution from which they graduated.
The percentage of NCAA student-athletes who are classified as “attached” to their alma mater (21%) is roughly similar to the rate among their non-athlete peers (19%).
NCAA student-athletes (28%) are more likely to have donated financially to their alma mater in the last 12 months than their non-athlete counterparts (17%).
NCAA student-athletes (50%) are slightly more likely to strongly agree their undergraduate education was worth the cost than non-athletes (47%).