Injury incidence in NCAA men’s sports during 2019/20–2021/22: findings from the injury surveillance program during the COVID-19 pandemic

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s sports feature elite athletes, and systematic injury surveillance efforts are required to inform injury risk mitigation strategies in this population. We describe the epidemiology of injuries in this population during the COVID-19-impacted 2019/20–2021/22 academic years. We examined inju distributions by sport, event type, body part, diagnosis, and mechanism of injury, and used a Bayesian negative binomial modelling framework to estimate injury incidence rates (per 1,000 athlete-exposures [AEs]). A total of 21,195 injuries were reported across the study period, with 24.7% of all injuries attributed to the lower leg/foot and 26.2% classified as sprains. The posterior mean overall injury rate was 7.6 per 1,000 AEs (95% Credible Interval: 6.9–8.4) and overall injury incidence was estimated to be highest in football. The patterns observed underscored that injury incidence in NCAA men’s sports remain linked to the specific gameplay dynamics of each sport.