The NCAA Should Adopt a Progressive PED Testing Regime

Submitted by LKLIII on December 29th, 2018 at 10:21 PM

Does ANYBODY think the 3 players for both Clemson & Alabama caught doping just happened to be the only ones on the squad?

Please. If it was a representative sample, then it would mean 13 of each team’s 2 deep currently had PEDs in their system.

My understanding is that the NCAA doesn’t police during conference play & lets the conferences govern that. But I think they do it during other NCAA nonconference games. 

It’s invasive and logistically impractical to test every player on every team. But they could do the following:

1) Send an NCAA doping tester to each squad to randomly test 10 players. Keep an army of reserve testers on standby.

2) If one of the 10 tests positive, cast a wider net and test another 30 on the squad randomly.

3) If one of the 30 tests dirty, test the entire squad by swarming a bunch of the reserve testers to the team so the whole squad can get tested within a short time window.

 

Maybe the NCAA doesn’t want to risk “ruining” CFP matchups if they had to suspend 10 or 15 or 35 players for a team or whatever. To which I say:

A) Annouce the policy change loudly, clearly, and frequently, a good year in advance. No team will be surprised this testing will happen. 

B) It wouldn’t “ruin” the matchup. It would provide a more honest game outcome by preventing certain teams from benefiting from rampant prohibited PED use. 

C) Hammer the teams caught in the first season. It may “ruin” a few bowls or CFP games, but they can’t gripe that they didn’t know it was going to happen. It’s their own damned fault if they decide to gamble and lose. I guarantee you the number teams triggering the PED tests the 2nd and 3rd years would drop like a stone. 

evenyoubrutus

December 29th, 2018 at 10:22 PM ^

Michigan should just use PEDs. Pay players. Play felons. Then everyone on mgoblog will stop complaining about the results. 

I mean, they'll still whine about the off field stuff and want Harbaugh fired, but at least they won't complain about the season.

M Go Cue

December 29th, 2018 at 10:40 PM ^

I’d like to see a full time NCAA compliance officer at all 129 FBS schools, with an office on campus and full access to every athletic complex.  Maybe two at PSU and MSU.

Michigan9

December 29th, 2018 at 10:59 PM ^

While it’s something that is needed, it won’t happen. The NCAA is a joke and will do nothing.

Look at the basketball scandal that is ongoing.  Not one thing has happened even though guys are going to prison for it. North Carolina was caught in a cheating scandal and the NCAA did nothing.

FlexUM

December 29th, 2018 at 11:20 PM ^

There are plenty of players on every team using peds. There are as many players on lowly bowling green using as there are Alabama. Some use a lot, some a little, some don’t even think it exists. The issue isn’t as big or as small as the extremes think. 

I was first introduced to steroids from a lineman in college. All the lineman on this division I Team were using or did use. 

Im an athletic trainer by trade and I’ve been on the side of it where you get a fax  from the ncaa to let the 40 student athletes they randomly selected to be there at 7am the next day. It really is random seriously one year not a single starter on the fb team was tested. Some guys will go their entire career and not get tested. It has gotten a bit tighter now as they do year round testing. 

Think a decade-ish ago they didn’t test all year. Some beautiful cycles could be done with no worries.

Even with your ideas (which I don’t actually disagree with) you could put together a protocol to make the likelihood very small you’d get caught with standard drugs. 

I have mixed feelings on the topic altogether. On one hand we should have some sort of base level even playing field. On the other hand these are adults who are basically trained meat bashing their heads together for our entertainment so spare me the “OMG their health” comments. 

That last comment is not directed at the OP or anyone specifically. 

It’s an interesting topic and game of cat and mouse. There are also plenty of resources available to athletes if they are willing to pay for sound plans to help avoid a positive test. 

FlexUM

December 30th, 2018 at 2:11 PM ^

Well keep in mind when the ncaa comes in all athletes are getting tested and it’s overall a small number of football players. 

I remember the S&C coach just going off on a third string scout team dude for getting popped. I remember thinking “your entire offense line is taking a gram of test a week right now”. 

It’s definitely harder now and you have to be more careful. 10+ years ago you could work it so your odds of getting caught were literally 0%. Now, even with good planning there is a chance you could get popped. 

You Only Live Twice

December 29th, 2018 at 11:20 PM ^

hell yes.  Aside from the fact of teams having doping players suspended, it's not hard to observe all the five star athletes running around on steroids.  Or whatever substance.  It's getting to where it's naive to pretend this isn't a factor.

footballguy

December 30th, 2018 at 1:27 AM ^

How many were even tested?

Also, it's incredibly easy to beat a drug test. You could do a couple cycles in the offseason, real all the benefits for the regular season, and either beat the test or not get tested at all. Or you could cycle during the season and likely not get tested.

Or you can use a fake penis (track team at my school did this), or create an aparatus to keep warm pee in a bag in your armpit to flow through a tube by your penis (Purdue athlete friend did this with his teammates at the last minute), or can use a condom filled with another person's piss (my teammate did this). Granted, these we're all things used by complete potheads that smoked the night before a drug test, but they ALL passed the tests with flying colors. 

This is just a glimpse at how easy it is to beat the tests. And again, HGH will not be flagged on an NCAA test.

Here2CWoodson

December 29th, 2018 at 11:33 PM ^

There are high profile players on Michigan using PEDs, so I have been told by people that would know. Yes, I hate when people post stuff like this without names/proof. However, when I heard it it was a good way to knock me off my high horse, so maybe it will work for some people around here too. 

jsquigg

December 29th, 2018 at 11:38 PM ^

There is zero doubt in my mind that both Nick and Dabo exploit and/or break every rule in the book to maintain their "success."  Players are paid.  Steroids are used.  Not performing is the worst sin and gets you on a bus out of town.  It's a joke.  But because the fallacy "everyone does it," is so pervasive, no one will do anything substantial about it.

Arb lover

December 30th, 2018 at 9:53 AM ^

The only thing I'm actually interested in knowing is whether the banking institutions say Clemson and Alabama refer their players too, files suspicious activity reports (SARs) or otherwise keeps records of why they do not believe up to $250k in cash or cash equivalents for a four star 18 year old player are not somewhere on the briberly to non-reported income to fraud scale, and are accurately maintaining this documentation, and secondly, if the players are reporting this income on their tax returns and paying the applicable taxes. 

The NCAA might be a joke, but I can guarantee you @Treasury doesn't play around. 

maizedNblued

December 29th, 2018 at 11:47 PM ^

The NCAA leaves it up to institutions to administer their own in-season testing....the NCAA randomly test a few players at the beginning of each school year which is all sponsored sports at that particular institution and again if any team reaches an NCAA Championship. 

The issue is most tests are done so via a urine sample - which is a.) beatable and b.) can be inaccurate.

It's an issue at every level of NCAA athletics, Division I, II and III.

aflapan

December 30th, 2018 at 12:50 AM ^

The NCAA does not exist to administer justice, protect student athletes, or to be fair. It exists to maintain, and be a front for, a profitable business structure. Once that is understood, it become clear why the NCAA will never seriously crack down on PED usage, large-scale academic fraud, and paying players. 

The NCAA isn't stupid- they know exactly what is going on all over the county. It's just not in their interest to do anything about it.

footballguy

December 30th, 2018 at 1:10 AM ^

Hown can we be so certain nobody on Michigan is taking PEDs?

As a former NCAA athlete who was in the testing pool,I can assure you it's incredibly easy to beat tests. Also, during the off-season, testing is extremely lax and borderline non existent. Because of this, and the fact that Michigan will always have fringe NFL talent, there is great incentive to dope in some capacity. I mean many of these kids are exposed to it in high school.

Not to mention the fact that that it'd impossible to accurately flag HGH with the NCAA's testing methods.

 

FlexUM

December 30th, 2018 at 2:21 PM ^

Yeah it’s the point I was trying to make you are right on. How good a team is has nothing to do with who uses ped’s how how many do. 

The D1 school I was at had rampant use and the football team won 2 games. 

By the time I graduated they were much better and I’d bet far less players used just based on the culture of the program. 

No team is ascending due to peds. It’s more individual. Plenty of guys on UM use and I’d wager it’s in line with other programs. 

You are also dead on. It used to be so easy all these guys had a solid 8-12 weeks a year they could blast away. Little tougher, bit not much, tougher now. 

BernardC

December 30th, 2018 at 7:45 AM ^

The NCAA has a ve$ted interest in not embarrassing its cash cows. Just look away the basketball scandal that broke last Feb (or so).  That was going to be so widespread or was rumored to bring down the big boys in the sport. We've heard peeps.  The media cycle runs its course, and the NCAA quietly lets it slip away 

gustave ferbert

December 30th, 2018 at 9:15 AM ^

It doesn't matter anymore.  The money thrown around in college football is greater than any sort of regulation.  I recently read that o$u is now a billion dollar franchise.  That punch bowl will never be removed.  The cheating will get worse, ped use will largely be overlooked.  The officiating will be even more inept (cheap part time labor). The only way the needle is going to get moved to level the playing field is for the IRS to get involved and revoke the tax free status of the major violators.  

 

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

December 30th, 2018 at 11:20 AM ^

The NCAA and the majority if the football factories do not truly want to stop PEDs or suspend any users because it could taint the money machine. Just like the NCAA has stopped enforcing recruiting violations.

The small sample testing is simply to support a public position of “we ensure fair competition and want to protect the student-athletes.” All BS.