Supplements for College Athletes: What Works and Is Allowed

Supplements for college athletes at a glance

How do experts grade supplements?

Two expert sources grade the evidence for sports supplements. This page uses both.

The first is the Sports Supplement Framework from the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). Its ABCD system ranks sports foods and supplement ingredients into four groups. Each group reflects the evidence and whether an ingredient is safe, permitted and effective.

The AIS grades ingredients, not brands or specific products. It shares the framework openly to help athletes, coaches and scientists make evidence based decisions. Here are the four groups:

• Group A: strong scientific evidence for use in specific situations in sport.
• Group B: emerging or mixed evidence, worth considering for some athletes or situations, with monitoring.
• Group C: the evidence does not support a benefit, or there is no research to go on.
• Group D: banned, or at high risk of contamination (hidden banned substances) that could cause a positive doping test. Athletes should not use them.

The second source is the 2018 consensus statement on supplements from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). A consensus statement is a joint view from a panel of experts. It says only a few performance supplements have good evidence of benefit.

The IOC also says a full nutrition assessment should come before any decision to use a supplement. In other words, look at your food first.

Which supplements are worth it for college athletes?

The AIS splits its Group A into three kinds of product. Each one does a different job.

Sports foods

Sports foods are products that give you energy and nutrients in a handy form. The AIS lists sports drinks, gels, chews, bars, electrolyte supplements, protein supplements and liquid meals in Group A.

The IOC says sports foods help when normal food is hard to eat, store or fit around training. It also notes they usually cost more than normal food.

Protein after training is the most common use. Our guide to the best post workout supplement covers what to take after a session and when.

Medical supplements

The AIS lists calcium, folate, iron, vitamin D and zinc as Group A medical supplements. The IOC describes this kind of product as a way to manage a shortfall in a nutrient.

The IOC says not to take these nutrients without a reason. A shortfall should first be found through a nutrition assessment, including your diet and a blood or urine test where one exists. It also says high dose iron should not be taken unless you are actually low.

Vitamins carry their own NCAA catch. Our guide to vitamins and the NCAA explains it.

Performance supplements

The AIS lists caffeine, beta-alanine, nitrate (often from beetroot juice), sodium bicarbonate and creatine monohydrate among its Group A performance supplements. The IOC says caffeine, creatine, nitrate, sodium bicarbonate and possibly beta-alanine may give "marginal performance gains".

Marginal means small. The IOC adds that results vary a lot from person to person. It says to try any of them in training before you use one in competition.

Which popular supplements have weaker evidence?

Many products on the shelf sit in Group B or Group C.

• Group B, mixed evidence: fish oil, multivitamins, probiotics, collagen, vitamin C, curcumin, and fruit extracts such as tart cherry.
• Group C, not supported: branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) and HMB, which the AIS moved down from Group B, and magnesium in the form of magnesium oxide.

Group B is not "useless". It means the science is still mixed, so the AIS keeps these for specific athletes with monitoring.

Many of these are sold for recovery. Our guide to muscle recovery supplements goes through the evidence one by one.

Which supplements should you never take?

Group D. The AIS says athletes should not use these products at all. Its examples include:

• stimulants such as DMAA (methylhexanamine)
• prohormones (products the body turns into hormones) such as DHEA
• SARMs, a kind of muscle building drug, such as ostarine
• higenamine, which the AIS lists as a beta-2 agonist

The NCAA list names DMAA, DHEA, ostarine and higenamine in its banned drug classes too. The AIS also lists tribulus and other "testosterone boosters". They are not on the world anti-doping list. But they often turn up in blends that contain banned ingredients, or carry a high risk of contamination.

What can your college give you?

In Division I, the rule is Bylaw 16.5.2.7. A bylaw is one of the NCAA's written rules. This one says a school may give you supplements only to add calories and electrolytes. They must contain no NCAA banned substances, and each must be one of six types:

• carbohydrate and electrolyte drinks
• energy bars
• carbohydrate boosters
• protein supplements
• omega 3 fatty acids
• vitamins and minerals

A product outside those types is "impermissible". That means your school may not provide it, even if you may buy it yourself. It is a different idea from "banned", which is about your drug test.

Creatine is the best known example. Our guide to creatine and the NCAA explains why it is not banned, yet a Division I school still cannot hand it out. If you compete in Division II or III, ask your compliance office what your school may provide.

How do the evidence grades and the NCAA rule compare?

This table puts the two side by side for Division I. It is our summary of the AIS groups and the six types in Bylaw 16.5.2.7. Every "yes" holds only if the product contains no banned substance.

Notice the mismatch. Creatine and caffeine have strong evidence, but your school cannot give them to you. Fish oil has mixed evidence, but your school can. The evidence and the rules answer different questions.

Our guides to protein powder and the NCAA and caffeine and the NCAA cover those two in detail.

What about supplements you buy yourself?

That is where most of the risk sits. The NCAA's own banned list carries this warning:

• There are no NCAA approved supplements.
• Supplements, "including vitamins and minerals", are not well regulated and may cause a positive drug test.
• Athletes have tested positive and lost their eligibility (their right to compete) using supplements.
• Supplements may be contaminated with banned substances not listed on the label.
• Third party tested products may be options, but "complete elimination of risk is impossible".
• All supplements are taken at your own risk.

The NCAA also says it is your responsibility to check with your athletics staff before you use any substance. The only label review service it subscribes to is Drug Free Sport AXIS.

Contamination means something in the product that is not on the label. The IOC notes that amounts too small to have any effect on your body can still cause a positive test. The NCAA bans whole classes of drugs, and there is no complete list of banned substances. Our guide to NCAA banned substances walks through every class.

Blends add risk. The AIS says multi ingredient products, such as pre workouts, raise a higher risk of accidental contamination. They draw ingredients from many sources.

How do you check the certification and the lot?

The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) says no supplement can be guaranteed to be 100 percent risk free. It advises using only supplements certified by a third party program that tests for substances banned in sport.

Certification is tied to the product you actually hold. A lot (or batch) is one production run. Informed Sport, for example, tests every batch of a certified product before it is sold. It asks you to search the batch number on its website to confirm your exact product was tested.

The IOC says these programs help you manage the risk, but no product is guaranteed safe. Our guide to NSF, Informed Sport and BSCG explains what each seal checks.

What if you are still in high school?

The NCAA rules above apply to college sport. Our guide to supplements for high school athletes covers what changes before college.

Checklist before you take a supplement in college

1. Scan it in Varsity Stack first. Check the barcode or label against our certification database before you buy.
2. Start with food. The IOC says a nutrition assessment should come before any supplement.
3. Check the evidence grade. Group A ingredients have the best support. Group C has little, and Group D is off limits.
4. Ask your athletics staff. The NCAA makes checking your responsibility.
5. Choose a single ingredient product over a blend, where you can.
6. Choose a product certified by a banned substance testing program, and look up the lot or batch number on the certifier's own site.
7. Keep a record. Add the product to your stack in Varsity Stack, so you and your staff know what you take. Keep a photo of the lot number too.

Check your supplements with Varsity Stack

The easiest way to check a supplement is the free Varsity Stack app. Scan it before you buy to see if it is certified, then add it to your stack so you and your staff know what you take. The app also gives personalized recommendations by sport, position, training block and goals, each linked to a certified product.

Download the App

For coaches, sports dietitians and athletic trainers: the team dashboard shows every athlete's stack and whether each product is certified. Athletes scan what they buy, and staff approve or reject it for the roster.

Request access for your program

Varsity Stack does not laboratory test supplements, and certification lowers risk without removing it.