The NCAA News - News & Features

Positive-ineligible rate for drug use increases

Percentage is triple the 1993 result

The percentage of student-athletes who were declared ineligible for NCAA competition as the result of a positive drug test during the 1995 winter/spring testing period was higher than the percentage for the same period in 1994.

A total of 48 of the 5,128 student-athletes tested -- 0.9 percent -- were ruled ineligible because of a positive test. Although that failure rate is still quite low, it is triple the positive-ineligible rate from the winter/spring 1993 period, when only 0.3 percent were ruled ineligible because of a positive test, and almost one-third higher than the 0.7 percent who were declared ineligible as the result of a positive test in the same period in 1994.

Forty-one of the failures were in the year-round testing program in Divisions I and II football, and 22 of those related to positive tests for anabolic steroids or growth hormones. Another 19 resulted from the failure of a student-athlete to show up for his test, which counts as a positive test.

Of the football student-athletes tested in the year-round program, 1.2 percent were ruled ineligible because of a positive result.

Seven other student-athletes tested positive and were ruled ineligible:

* One from the Division II Baseball Championship (marijuana).

* Two from the year-round testing program for track and field (one for anabolic steroids and one for failure to show).

* One from the Division II Indoor Track Championships (marijuana).

* One from the Division III Indoor Track Championships (marijuana).

* One from the Division I Wrestling Championships (anabolic steroids).

* One from the Division III Wrestling Championships (marijuana).

In addition to the 48 student-athletes who were ruled ineligible, another 28 tested positive or failed to show but retained their eligibility when medical justification was documented, when an appeal was granted or until the results of a follow-up examination were provided (such athletes are designated as "positive eligibles" in the accompanying chart).

Frank D. Uryasz, NCAA director of sports sciences, said that the Association does not attempt to interpret the results of the drug-testing program and that the results do not necessarily mean that less than one percent of all student-athletes are using drugs.

Any student-athlete failing the test is ineligible for at least one year after testing positive.