Are college athletes drug tested?

Great question. I've always wondered if all D-1 athletes are tested throughout the year or just the winners of big meets, conference championships, national championships, etc. And if any target testing is done on suspicions performances or a rival coach complaining to the NCAAs about a certain athlete, etc. ?

Okay...D-1 athletes & coaches, tell us what you know.

There are random tests.

Not personally aware of targeted testing based on suspiciouns.

My daughter was a D1 runner and she was told that she COULD be randomly tested when she was sick- she was told by the nurse at the college infirmary to take medication and the coach and AD intervened and told her that she could fail a drug test if they randomly tested her.

ran for a mid-major d1, don't know anyone who was tested besides our athletes who made nationals

Ran 4 years in a decent d1 conference, i was never tested but maybe once when we had our first physical while joining the team. Members were “randomly” selected during the season but despite having a small squad I never once selected to be tested

This shows how few real runners are here. Most of the posters either ran D3 or ran D1 so long ago that all of their info is outdated. It gets frustrating when I try to post about D1 scholarships or D1 training only to have people shoot the information down. I have several children who run for P5 schools. They get randomly tested by the NCAA during XC and track.

We had team-wide testing, but they were just checking for weed and stuff. Some people tested positive, but it was mostly ignored. One guy failed like three in a row before the coaches told him to cut it out. They sure as heck aren't doing EPO tests. Also, when a guy on ADHD meds didn’t test positive for that, he got in trouble because they assumed he was selling it off.

There was also more rigorous, random testing from the conference. They would actually check your piss right in front of you to make sure it wasn’t too diluted for a sample. If it was, you stayed in the room until you could piss again.

Zionmustbusing wrote:

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Ran Division II and NAIA. I was never tested but a couple teammates were tested in d2. I really think that was based upon suspicion too because they happened to be the ones who smoked weed. We did qualify for nationals and won conference still no test as a team.

In NAIA on the other hand we never got tested and in fact the whole basketball team would come to my room to smoke in the bathroom. I think our trainer said we could be selected as a school to be tested or something like that but we just never were. For what it is worth our basketball team were the defending national champions and we were conference champs ranked as high as 4th nationally and still no test.

Ehso wrote:

We had team-wide testing, but they were just checking for weed and stuff. Some people tested positive, but it was mostly ignored. One guy failed like three in a row before the coaches told him to cut it out. They sure as heck aren't doing EPO tests. Also, when a guy on ADHD meds didn’t test positive for that, he got in trouble because they assumed he was selling it off.

There was also more rigorous, random testing from the conference. They would actually check your piss right in front of you to make sure it wasn’t too diluted for a sample. If it was, you stayed in the room until you could piss again.

Same way it works at my school. Team wide tests about 4 times a year. Random athletes tested at conference meets. I say random because some girls on my cross team have been tested despite being at the very back of the race.

I graduated a few years ago, so fairly recent. Big Ten Conference school, we were tested once every single year, maybe twice one of the years. I'm pretty sure those tests were done by the conference, not NCAA. NCAA doesn't test EVERY school all of the time. I believe each conference has their own testers and they can differ on how often they test. So I was tested every year once or twice in Big Ten, but I've spoken with Big 12 people and they were only twice all of college.

And then at the Big Ten championships there was 'random' drug testing, but it was more like random testing for people that finished in the top 3. Same sort of thing at NCAA's, 'random' but only for a percentage of the people that placed high.

We've had multiple people have to sit out from smoking weed as a result of the Big Ten drug testing. It seemed it was only a few meets at the beginning of the year for a first-offense. If it happened three times or maybe even twice, they were off the team.

Current D1 runner. NCAA randomly tests, some schools also preform their own drug tests.

Ehso wrote:

We had team-wide testing, but they were just checking for weed and stuff. Some people tested positive, but it was mostly ignored. One guy failed like three in a row before the coaches told him to cut it out. They sure as heck aren't doing EPO tests. Also, when a guy on ADHD meds didn’t test positive for that, he got in trouble because they assumed he was selling it off.

"Some people tested positive, but it was mostly ignored?"

"One guy failed like three in a row before the coaches told him to cut it out?"

Not testing for rocket fuel?

You've got to be kidding? Then it's a total joke with college athletics! ?

Some of these college kids could be doping up a storm and who knows nor cares?

Total nonsense!

If you would be tested positive just say you ate beef in mexico or kissed someone. As everyone knows this is possible its useless to test at all. Good on colleges for not wasting funds

Ran D1 at UDM...had random drug tests multiple times a year. The only time I was tested was my senior year. I got told the night before and had to be there by 6am. When I arrived there were player selected from all sports. From what I have heard, the school initiates many drug tests and the NCAA can also come and do their own drug test. I believe the majority of the time it is the school doing the testing, not NCAA. Not sure how it works if someone were to test positive...maybe the school does extra to try and catch it before NCAA would and would punish??

NCAA drug testing is rare, but does happen...

Institutional testing of athletes is far more common. Every DI school I have been at tested athletes at least once a year randomly (mostly for recreational drugs). At the school I work at the AD just suspended the best basketball player going into the conference tourney for failing a second school drug test (marijuana, most likely).

At most schools you have to consent to institutional drug testing to be a part of the athletic department. A long time a ago I had to consent to random drug testing as a school employee.

Sliding Scale wrote:

NCAA drug testing is rare, but does happen...

Institutional testing of athletes is far more common. Every DI school I have been at tested athletes at least once a year randomly (mostly for recreational drugs). At the school I work at the AD just suspended the best basketball player going into the conference tourney for failing a second school drug test (marijuana, most likely).

At most schools you have to consent to institutional drug testing to be a part of the athletic department. A long time a ago I had to consent to random drug testing as a school employee.

Why is that? Funding?

I think everyone should be tested!!!

Yes, but the tests are done once a season, a few athletes from the whole athletics program are selected, and it's not too hard to get excused for one reason or another.

This was about 15 years ago at a P5.

I never got tested by NCAA, but many others did randomly. However, over the course of 4 years, I got tested at least 15 times by my athletic department. There was a guaranteed test in August, then random ones throughout the year for everyone (even scrubs like myself).

You’d either be told at practice that you’d have one after your workout (good luck being hydrated) or you’d get a call at 6:30 a.m. that you had to be at the stadium by 8. (These were usually Friday mornings and included an alcohol swab for the under-21s.) Presumably this was a CYA so that you’d be suspended or dropped before embarrassing the program by failing an NCAA test.

Of course the fast people also sometimes got tested by USADA or whatever.

After graduation, I ran a season of D2 cross country and then I got a random NCAA test, along with about half the team.