Supporting College Athletes: Wellness Programs in the Era of NIL and Legal Reform

Abstract

The college athletics landscape has evolved dramatically in the past decade. While the legal question of whether college athletes are employees remains open, court proceedings have regularly revealed that schools treat their athletes similarly to employees, namely by exerting a high degree of control over their schedules, academic freedoms, and personal conduct. The advent of schools paying their athletes only furthers the employee argument. Therefore, principles of worksite wellness would benefit the athletes and their institutions, regardless of their legal status as employees or non-employee students. Worksite wellness programs, also referred to as employee wellness programs, aim to provide employees with access to healthy supports in the work environment. Program components combined with other healthy supports at the worksite (e.g., built environment changes, access to healthy options, etc.) are referred to as organizational supports. We conducted a content analysis to determine what is known about wellness efforts for college athletes in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big 10 Conference, Big 12 Conference, and Southeastern Conference (SEC), also known as the NCAA “Power 4” institutions. Overall, the results of this content analysis show a lack of clear communication regarding wellness efforts for college athletes in the included conferences. The challenge lies in making the case for wellness programs geared to college athletes that are both supported and effectively communicated by University and Athletics leadership.