Now in its 19th year, the NCAA Graduate Student Research Grant Program aims to stimulate research on college sports by providing financial support to graduate students in the social and behavioral sciences.
A review panel comprising eight athletics administrators and faculty from NCAA member schools selected four research projects to fund in the 2025 cycle of the program.
"This year's awards support research that may identify ways to support athletes' mental wellness during their college careers and explore ways for colleges to support underrepresented student-athletes academically and through career programming," said Rebecca Spencer, who chairs the panel and is a professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences and the faculty athletics representative at Massachusetts. "These awards not only support this important research but also are an asset to the career development of the grantees. Their findings will be shared with peers at academic conferences and in peer-reviewed publications, allowing them to have an impact on future college athletics research and on the experiences of student-athletes directly."
Awards for these one-time grants are set at a maximum of $7,500. Recipients' projects are expected to culminate in an article written for publication in a scholarly journal or in a completed master's thesis or doctoral dissertation.
Grants were awarded to the following graduate students:
- Nowoola Awopetu, VCU, Trauma, Identity and Transition: The Role of ACEs in Shaping Career Readiness for Black Male College Athletes.
- Carina Chen, Fordham, Examining the Roles of Perceived Gender and Racial Representations in Professional Sports Career Self-Efficacy.
- Jada Crocker, George Mason, On the Sidelines of Success: Academic Advising Experiences of Division I Black/African American Student-Athletes at Minority Serving Institutions.
- Hannah Miller, West Virginia, Social Media and Body Image Among NCAA Student-Athletes: A Mixed Methods Exploration of Pressures, Perceptions and Protective Strategies.
Additionally, the external review panel granted an NCAA Research Scholar Award to graduate student Stephanie Davis (Minnesota). This award is a scholarship intended to recognize outstanding topics and research. The award recognizes Davis as a rising scholar for the contribution she is making to intercollegiate athletics research.
The 2026 NCAA Graduate Student Research Grant call for proposals is expected to be released in February, with proposals due in May.
Members of the external review panel that selected the grant recipients:
- Panel chair Rebecca Spencer, faculty athletics representative, professor of psychological and brain sciences, Massachusetts.
- Sheri Boyle, faculty athletics representative, professor of social work, sociology and human services, California (Pennsylvania).
- Micah Dobson, faculty athletics representative, associate professor of recreation management, Shaw.
- Richard Loosbrock, faculty athletics representative, professor of history, Adams State.
- Heather Ryan, deputy director of athletics/student-athlete experience and senior woman administrator, Duke.
- Rene Salinas, faculty athletics representative, professor of mathematical sciences, Appalachian State University.
- Karen Tompson-Wolfe, faculty athletics representative, assistant dean of first-year experience and learning opportunities, Westminster (Missouri).
- Khirey Walker, assistant professor of sport management, Elon.
