Division I men's basketball student-athletes reported experiencing more social media harassment, according to the NCAA's latest Growth, Opportunities, Aspirations and Learning of Students in College study, an expansive survey that includes responses from more than 20,000 student-athletes across all three divisions.
The 2025 study found that 51% of Division I men's basketball student-athletes reported receiving social media abuse based on their athletics performance. The group also reported the highest rates of receiving negative or threatening messages from someone who bet on their game, at 46%.
NCAA President Charlie Baker said, "The level of social media harassment our student-athletes must endure is unacceptable. These percentages are a reflection of the increased popularity of betting on college sports across the country, and the negative environment it has created. We must continue to do everything we can to protect athletes from this type of behavior and preserve the integrity of college sports."
The GOALS study is designed to inform NCAA membership discussions by providing insights into the academic, athletic and social experiences of student-athletes. Members in all three divisions were briefed on preliminary results of the study at the NCAA Convention last month.
Faculty athletics representatives at 493 member schools assisted in conducting the survey, which covered topics including student-athletes' health and well-being, time commitments, the recruitment process, on-campus support and finances.
Other findings from the survey included insights about student-athlete sleep patterns and the reasons behind transfer decisions.
Student-athletes are getting more sleep
The 2025 study found student-athletes reporting the highest average hours of weekday sleep ever reported in the GOALS data. In 2019, average sleep hit an all-time low of six hours and 15 minutes per night, while 2025 data saw an improvement of about 33 minutes per night. This increase was similar across sports, genders and divisions.
Notably, student-athletes in all sports are reporting getting more sleep than the overall average in the 2015 and 2019 GOALS studies. Consistent with previous findings, ice hockey student-athletes reported the highest average weekday hours of sleep (seven hours and 16 minutes for men, seven hours and one minute for women), while football student-athletes reported the lowest average (six hours and 24 minutes, up from five hours and 51 minutes in 2019).
Athletics opportunities affect college and transfer decisions
Across both men's and women's sports, having the opportunity to compete and being on a successful team remain the top drivers for student-athletes. Ninety percent of student-athletes noted having the opportunity to compete and being on a successful team as the most important aspects for their athletics experience, while being viewed as a team leader stood out as an important factor for nearly three-quarters of student-athletes.
When selecting from a list of factors that impacted their college choice, nontransfers reported their top three factors were the opportunity to play their sport at the NCAA level, academics and relationships with members of the team. Among transfers, academics drove their choice at a rate 5 to 10 percentage points lower than that of nontransfers, and the promise of playing time or a certain role on the team played a more significant role in choosing their current college.
Among those in the study who indicated having transferred, the top five reasons for doing so varied by men's and women's sports. The top two reasons in men's sports were the desire to compete at a higher level (41%) and getting more playing time (29%), while women's sports participants cited needing a change from previous coach/teammates (47%) and improving their mental health or well-being (39%).
