I have been collecting urine for 20 years.

The reality hit me last month during an NCAA competitive-safeguards committee meeting. The meeting started like most others with new committee members introducing themselves. Two physicians, new to the committee, stated that they were undergraduate student-athletes in the 1980s. I might have drug-tested them, I thought to myself. It made me feel old. Then, two student-athletes, also new to the committee, introduced themselves. They were born in the 1980s. That made me feel really old.

During a break in the meeting, I took out my calculator and began to compute how many gallons of urine the NCAA has collected in its drug-testing program since its inception in November 1986. I’m not sure why I decided to do this. I am sure no one on the committee asked for the number. Anyway, I figured it was a number that even NCAA Director of Statistics Jim Wright wouldn’t know. Unfortunately, the arithmetic got overly complicated during the milliliters-to-gallons conversion step and I ended up with a negative number. No doubt the figure is very large.

Listening to the committee’s discussion, I couldn’t help but think about the significant progress the NCAA has made in deterring performance-enhancing drug use. The latest NCAA drug study shows that use continues to drop. Athletes in Divisions I and II sports are subject to NCAA testing on campus during the school year. There are laboratory tests for substances that we couldn’t detect a few years ago like synthetic testosterone and EPO. More schools than ever have their own testing programs, and more and more are adding performance-enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids to their testing menus.

Despite its successes, the competitive-safeguards committee made some significant changes at its January meeting to improve the Association’s testing programs, and help student-athletes resist the temptation of drug use.

The changes include:

n Increased drug testing at NCAA baseball championships and mandatory baseball testing at all Division I year-round drug-testing sites. (Both changes were endorsed by the American Baseball Coaches Association and the Atlantic Coast Conference.)

n Expansion of the year-round testing program in 2006 to include the summer months for Division I football and baseball, regardless of whether the athletes are on or off campus.

n Development of a pilot, year-round steroid testing program in Division III.

n Study of expanding the year-round drug-testing program to include all banned substances, including street drugs.

No doubt, these actions will further enhance student-athlete well-being, and all of them deserve membership support.

Student-athletes sometimes ask me during drug testing how I ended up collecting urine for a living. They expect a hard-luck story, so I always urge them to stay in school and get a degree to avoid ending up in a similar predicament. Of course, the reality is that being involved in the NCAA’s programs that help young people remain drug free has been tremendously rewarding.

I have been collecting urine for 20 years. Saying that makes me feel old — and proud.

Frank Uryasz is president of The National Center for Drug Free Sport.