REPORT OF THE
COMMITTEE ON COMPETITIVE SAFEGUARDS AND
MEDICAL ASPECTS OF SPORT
ACTION ITEMS.
1. Budget Requests. The following items, listed in priority order, are the committee’s final requests for health and safety initiatives funded by 2001-02 Association-wide dollars. The committee requests the Division III Management Council endorsement of these initiatives. Attachment A is an abbreviated outline of the four requests.
a. Injury Surveillance System Enhancement.
(1) Recommendation. To provide necessary technical upgrades to the NCAA Injury Surveillance System (ISS) over the next two years.
(2) Rationale. The ISS is vital in managing the risk inherent in the Association’s commitment to health and safety issues by providing a foundation upon which to base rules and policy decisions. (Attachments B and C will be provided at the meeting.) However, the effectiveness of the current system is limited due to technical, financial and functional constraints.
(a) Current limitations. The current injury data collection on paper forms limits the number of participating schools to 15 percent of schools sponsoring a particular sport. It also limits the number of sports being monitored; currently eight NCAA sports and almost all out-of-season activities are not monitored. The current system can provide general trends on frequently occurring events but has limited application to important, but fairly rare events, such as impact with a batted baseball or catastrophic injuries. The limited sample size also hinders the system’s ability to evaluate the effectiveness of rules and policy changes on safety. The system cannot track repetitive events to the same individual, such as concussions, which currently are an issue in football and ice hockey and a growing concern in soccer. Finally, the current ISS information is available only by hard copy amid growing demand from NCAA members, media and the public for greater accessibility.
(b) Membership interest. The proposed enhancements include implementation of an electronic exchange of injury surveillance data. A recent national office survey indicated that 90 percent of member institutions have computer and Internet access in athletic training rooms and are interested in these enhancements. The membership is capable and interested in handling this project.
(c) Enhancement benefits. Such an upgrade will expand sampling to allow participation by every school, every sport and every participant. The technology will increase the efficiency and accuracy of data reporting. This results in greater application to Association-wide issues while providing each member institution with specific information upon which to base institutional health and safety decisions. Finally, the enhanced system will create a national pool of data, cleaned of any identifiers that may cause confidentiality concerns, for access and application by member institutions and other interested parties.
This project supports NCAA Executive Committee Priority Nos. 2, 3 and 4 and divisional strategic plans to enhance student-athlete welfare.
(3) Budget Impact. The project includes a request for $250,000 for the 2001-02, and $150,000 for the 2002-03 fiscal years. These costs cover technology development, consulting fees, pilot testing and statistical analysis. They also reflect a system that can be maintained and supported internally by information services staff at the national office. These project costs have been reviewed and endorsed by national office information services staff.
Electronic information exchange should reduce annual ISS operating expenses by $35,000 annually through elimination of form production and mailing costs. The enhancement investment eventually would pay for itself in reduced operating costs. Future system modifications and maintenance should be able to be funded through the remaining monies in the annual ISS operating budget.
b. Dietary Supplement Resource Exchange Center (REC).
(1) Recommendation. Fully fund the REC by allocating $65,000 new drug education funds for September 2001 through August 2002.
(2) Rationale. NCAA Executive Committee Priority No. 2 reinforces the values of fairness and integrity in intercollegiate athletics. Drug-testing appeals heard by the drug-testing subcommittee reflected a trend in increased positive tests resulting from supplement use. In the 1999-00 academic year, two-thirds of the positive drug tests appealed involved the substances ephedra and nandrolone metabolites, which are ingested primarily through supplement use. In the spring of 2000, the Resource Exchange Center began serving NCAA members with expertise on nutritional supplements. The development and marketing of the REC by The National Center for Drug Free Sport (The Center) has provided student-athletes and athletics staff with a telephone hotline, an informative and updated Web site, and electronic mail account staffed by experts educated in pharmacology and nutrition to assist institutions in supplement education. In the first quarter of 1999-00, there were 130 requests to The Center for information from student-athletes and staff from NCAA member institutions. In the first quarter of 2000-01, following a promotion of the REC, that number increased to 589 requests for information. During its first year of operation the REC was funded through unused funds from the existing drug-education budget. These funds will not continue to be available.
(3) Budget Impact. $65,000 in new funding to continue this service.
c. Drug Testing Expansion.
(1) Recommendation. Pursue a three-year expansion of year-round drug-testing into Division I baseball and Division I men’s and women’s swimming during the first year, Division I wrestling, Division II baseball and Division III football during the second year, and Division II Men’s and Women’s Track during the third year.
(2) Rationale. The NCAA’s drug-testing plan was instituted to promote fair and equitable athletics competition in collegiate athletics. The NCAA drug-testing program began in 1986. Since that time, as measured by the quadrennial survey of drug use and abuse habits of NCAA student-athletes, reported steroid use dropped from 4.4 percent in 1985 to 1.1 percent in 1997 (last year of data), and reported amphetamine use dropped from 8.1 percent in 1985 to 3.1 percent in 1997. With the explosion in the use of over-the-counter nutritional supplements containing metabolites of nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, and ephedrine, a stimulant, both NCAA banned substances, and increasing concern over the use of performance enhancing substances at all levels of athletics, the committee once again puts forth its recommendations for expanding NCAA year-round drug testing as outlined in Attachment C.
(3) Budget Impact. The budget implications of this recommendation reflect a high estimate for a comprehensive testing program: $495,000 for the first year expansion and $1,216,150 for the second. A plan containing more moderate implementation steps and reduced costs is under development.
2. Graded penalties for positive drug tests.
(1) Recommendation. Explore the establishment of a graded penalty structure for positive drug tests.
(2) Rationale. The NCAA penalty structure for positive drug tests has not been revised since 1990, when the one-year penalty for all positive drug tests was established. Since that time, the list of NCAA banned substances has greatly expanded, and the opportunities for student-athletes to inadvertently consume a banned substance through a nutritional supplement has been identified as a mitigating circumstance on drug-test appeals calls. Other sports governing bodies, both national and international, support a drug-testing penalty structure that varies according to the substance, the importance of the competition and other circumstances surrounding the case. The committee would like to explore options to adopt a graded penalty structure and seeks support from the management council before going forward on what they expect will be a time consuming effort.
(3) Budget Impact. None.
3. Changes to the Student-Athlete Statement.
(1) Recommendation. Revise Part II to include, in the bulleted section after "Results of NCAA drug tests;" a new bullet: "Results of positive drug tests done by non-NCAA national and international athletics organizations." Revise Part IV. To now read: "You affirm that you have not tested positive for banned substances by a non-NCAA national or international athletics organization. Further, you understand that if you tested positive, the result must be declared here. It will be reported by your director of athletics to the NCAA and you are subject to NCAA drug-testing and possible loss of eligibility. Marijuana and heroin results are excluded from this requirement and are not to be declared here." In addition, revise Part IV. to include a line for "previous positive test" (if any); followed by a new paragraph: "If you test positive for a banned substance by a non-NCAA national or international organization, as described in the above paragraph, at any time after you sign this statement, you must report it to your director of athletics, who will report it to the NCAA and you will be subject to NCAA drug testing and possible loss of eligibility."
(2) Rationale. Part II of the student-athlete statement identifies consent to disclose only to authorized representatives of the institution, its athletics conference and the NCAA documents regarding drug testing. This change will include positive drug tests from non-NCAA national and international athletics organizations to meet the requirements in Part IV.
The Student-Athlete statement currently does not make a distinction on its drug-testing reporting requirement between performance enhancing substances and street drugs. This distinction is made in NCAA Bylaw 31.2.3.1.2 and in the drug-testing protocol 10.1.2.1. This change on the statement in Part IV will make the requirement clearer. Further, the student-athlete statement does not clearly require that the student-athlete who has tested positive for a banned substance by a non-NCAA national or international athletics organization report it, only that they understand they are subject to an NCAA drug test. In addition, the student athlete statement does not require the reporting after the signing of the student-athlete statement and during the eligibility period. These changes will require reporting of positive drug tests from non-NCAA national and international throughout the student-athlete’s eligibility.
(3) Budget Impact. None.
4. Changes to the NCAA Banned Substance List.
(1) Recommendation. Add methylene-dioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) (ecstasy) to the list of banned substances under the category "Stimulants."
(2) Rationale. MDMA, or ecstasy as it is commonly known, is not listed out under the category "Stimulants;" MDMA is a stimulant and therefore an NCAA banned substance.
(3) Budget Impact. None
Committee Chair: Bryan W. Smith
Staff Liaisons: Randall W. Dick; Mary E. Wilfert