NCAA Summer Drug Testing

NCAA to begin summer drug testing this year

YEAR-ROUND PROGRAM EXPANDS IN DI AND DII

It has been a little-discussed gap in the NCAA drug testing program. If a student-athlete planned well, he or she could take a cycle of steroids during the summer months when school was not in session.

Though the NCAA has had a year-round drug-testing program since 1990, there wasn’t any testing between the conclusion of the spring term and the beginning of the fall term. That changes this summer.

The NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports has approved an expansion of the NCAA year-round drug-testing program to include summer testing for Division I and Division II student-athletes. This first year, efforts will focus on Division I football and baseball players, but all student-athletes in Divisions I and II are subject to random selection for the summer program. Student-athletes at a Division III institution who participate in a Division I sport also are subject to testing.

The summer expansion of the year-round program has brought some questions from athletics administrators, student-athletes and the media.

How will student-athletes be located? Who will staff the testing on campus during the summer? What if a student-athlete is not on campus? And, why hasn’t the NCAA always tested during the summer since it established the year-round program?

COMPLIANCE DOESN'T TAKE THE SUMMER OFF

Why hasn’t the NCAA year-round program always tested in the summer?

“Part of the reason was philosophical,” said Andrea Wickerham, who oversees the NCAA drug-testing program as legal relations and policy director for Drug Free Sport. “There was a belief that there should be a time when little athletically related demands were placed on student-athletes,” Wickerham said.

“The other part was practical. How do you track down student-athletes who are off-campus? And, of course, expansion of testing has to be funded.”

As for the philosophical downtime, the reality is that many student-athletes, especially in Division I, are on campus for at least part of the summer.

“There are many Division I institutions where the entire football team, for example, is on campus all summer, working out and taking summer classes,” Wickerham said.

But the most compelling argument, the one that convinced Wickerham that the logistical challenges of summer drug testing were worth it: Compliance doesn’t take the summer off. And, drug testing is a compliance issue.

“You can’t accept a car from a booster in the summer,” said Drug Free Sport’s president, Frank Uryasz, who has administered the NCAA drug-testing program for two decades.

“You can’t sign a contract with an agent in the summer and remain eligible. Why should you be able to use steroids, a banned performance-enhancing drug, in the summer without the risk of getting caught? It didn’t make sense. Compliance doesn’t take the summer off,” Uryasz said.

CLOSING A 'WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY'

A variety of factors combined to move the NCAA to summer drug testing, including the persistent buzz that some student-athletes were using the summer months to bulk up beyond what would be possible naturally.

“You could see it in media guides," Wickerham said. “And you would hear game announcers talk about it. Now, obviously, you can make improvements to your physique over time, particularly if you’re new to weight lifting or just recently began working with a nutritionist. But just how did that upperclassman gain 30 pounds of pure muscle over the summer?”

Baseball America, in its recent article discussing NCAA summer drug testing, noted that, in college summer baseball leagues, “scouts and players alike have reported the use of steroids as well as recreational drugs.”

Uryasz acknowledged that the NCAA year-round program needed to expand to include summer months.

“The timing of the year-round testing, which was done by the end of the academic year and didn’t start again until the beginning of the next academic year, left open a 60- to 90-day ‘window of opportunity’ for a student-athlete to take performance-enhancing drugs,” Uryasz said, noting that student-athletes could have benefited — or perhaps suffered — from their effects all year.

“That cycle or two of steroids would result in increased muscle mass and strength that lasted longer than the drugs were detectable,” Uryasz said. “And, the student-athlete also was subjecting himself to the negative side effects of the drugs, so it’s also a student-athlete well-being issue.”

Uryasz says the summer testing program also is a matter of doing the right thing. “It’s always a good idea to do the right thing, but it’s probably an even better idea when your industry is being scrutinized by the federal government,” Uryasz added.

“It’s a logical expansion of the year-round program to make it truly year-round,” Uryasz said. “The NCAA program is a good example of how a drug-testing program should work. However, we’ve heard rumors that student-athletes are exploiting the testing schedule. It’s a window that needed to be closed.”

Logistical Challenges

One reason there hasn’t been NCAA summer drug testing in the past is easy to understand. It presents some logistical challenges.

Though many Division I football players will be merely a stone’s throw from the campus weight room throughout June and July, what about the student-athletes who aren’t? Who will find the athletes? What if they are off campus or even overseas?

“The summer drug-testing program is designed to minimize logistical issues as much as possible, while acknowledging that some challenges remain,” Wickerham said.

“The summer drug-testing program will begin in mid-May and run through the end of August, with much of the testing occurring when student-athletes who are on campus for summer classes will be there,” she said.

“Each institution will need to designate a summer drug-testing site coordinator, just as institutions currently designate a drug-testing site coordinator,” Wickerham said. “It’s important that the summer site coordinator be a person who is officially employed on a full-time basis by the institution in the summer.”

The summer site coordinator will need to obtain summer contact information for all returning student-athletes with eligibility remaining.

“And while athletes may move around in the summer, it’s a rare athlete who doesn’t carry a cell phone,” Wickerham said.

Much of the process will remain the same as the year-round program that occurs during the academic year.

“Just as with year-round testing, the summer site coordinator will submit his or her academic calendar for summer to us, and Drug Free Sport will select institutions to be tested throughout the summer,” Wickerham said. “We will follow our regular notification procedures, notifying the selected institution no more than 48 hours prior to when testing is scheduled to occur.

The institution will send Drug Free Sport a squad list for the selected sports, which may include sports other than football and baseball, though those sports are the focus this first year.

As with the rest of the year-round program, Drug Free Sport will conduct a random selection from the squad list and then notify the site coordinator of the selected student-athletes via e-mail.

The summer site coordinator will notify the student-athletes directly, either by telephone or in person. Then collectors from Drug Free Sport will test the student-athlete without regard for whether the student- athlete is on campus or off campus.

“We have collection crews all across the country, so we can go to wherever the student-athlete is located,” Wickerham said.

All of the usual drug-testing protocols will be in effect, from the chain-of-custody requirements to the penalty for positive tests. As with all NCAA drug testing, the penalty for the first positive test is the loss of one year of eligibility. The penalty for the second positive test is a permanent loss of NCAA eligibility.

Wickerham emphasizes that Drug Free Sport will work closely with summer site coordinators to make it work as smoothly as possible.

“We know it will be a logistical challenge, particularly the first year,” Wickerham said. “Like we do all year in the year-round program, we will be working with schools and with summer site coordinators to make the program successful.”

Athletics directors and compliance directors received a letter from Dr. Michael Krauss, chair of the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, introducing the summer drug-testing program. Drug Free Sport also sent a more detailed letter to institutions in mid-April.

For more information about the NCAA summer drug-testing program, see the March 27, 2006, issue of The NCAA News or call Andrea Wickerham at Drug Free Sport at 816/474-8655, ext. 118.