superman7515
December 21st, 2012, 03:00 PM
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8765531/steroids-loom-major-college-football-report-says
WASHINGTON -- With steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight -- 30 pounds or more in a single year, sometimes -- without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams.
Rules vary so widely that, on any given game day, a team with a strict no-steroid policy can face a team whose players have repeatedly tested positive.
An investigation by The Associated Press -- based on dozens of interviews with players, testers, dealers and experts and an analysis of weight records for more than 61,000 players -- revealed that while those running the multibillion-dollar sport believe the problem is under control, that is hardly the case.
The sport's near-zero rate of positive steroids tests isn't an accurate gauge among college athletes. Random tests provide weak deterrence and, by design, fail to catch every player using steroids. Colleges also are reluctant to spend money on expensive steroid testing when cheaper ones for drugs like marijuana allow them to say they're doing everything they can to keep drugs out of football.
"It's nothing like what's going on in reality," said Don Catlin, an anti-doping pioneer who spent years conducting the NCAA's laboratory tests at UCLA. He became so frustrated with the college system that it drove him in part to leave the testing industry to focus on anti-doping research.
Catlin said the collegiate system, in which players often are notified days before a test and many schools don't even test for steroids, is designed to not catch dopers. That artificially reduces the numbers of positive tests and keeps schools safe from embarrassing drug scandals.....
WASHINGTON -- With steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight -- 30 pounds or more in a single year, sometimes -- without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams.
Rules vary so widely that, on any given game day, a team with a strict no-steroid policy can face a team whose players have repeatedly tested positive.
An investigation by The Associated Press -- based on dozens of interviews with players, testers, dealers and experts and an analysis of weight records for more than 61,000 players -- revealed that while those running the multibillion-dollar sport believe the problem is under control, that is hardly the case.
The sport's near-zero rate of positive steroids tests isn't an accurate gauge among college athletes. Random tests provide weak deterrence and, by design, fail to catch every player using steroids. Colleges also are reluctant to spend money on expensive steroid testing when cheaper ones for drugs like marijuana allow them to say they're doing everything they can to keep drugs out of football.
"It's nothing like what's going on in reality," said Don Catlin, an anti-doping pioneer who spent years conducting the NCAA's laboratory tests at UCLA. He became so frustrated with the college system that it drove him in part to leave the testing industry to focus on anti-doping research.
Catlin said the collegiate system, in which players often are notified days before a test and many schools don't even test for steroids, is designed to not catch dopers. That artificially reduces the numbers of positive tests and keeps schools safe from embarrassing drug scandals.....