It’s been a rather tumultuous year for the Syracuse men’s basketball program. Months ago, on the heels of allegations of sexual molestation, assistant coach, Bernie Fine was dismissed from the program. Though charges were not filed, and one admitted to lying, it gave the program a serious black eye.
Today, Yahoo! Sports is reporting that, according to four sources close to the program, the school has violated it’s own drug policy several times over the last decade.
Though the NCAA does not mandate a uniform set of drug testing policies for each of its member schools, nor does it require them to have any, the NCAA does have the authority to oversee and sanction the school’s ability to follows their own procedures.
The four sources told Yahoo! Sports that since 2001, the school has allowed 10 players to practice and play when, according to their own drug testing guidelines, they should not have been allowed to do so after failing one or more drug tests. An additional source, a former player, admitted that the NCAA had spoken to him about the allegations.
After the report was published, Syracuse issued a statement claiming that any violations which may have occured have been self-reported to the NCAA and that the violations do not pertain to any players on their current team, which holds a 30-1 record this season, and is ranked No. 2 in the country heading into the NCAA Tournament.
When asked about the accusations, head-coach Jim Boeheim stated that he “doesn’t know anything about it.”
Whether or not the reports are true, one thing is certain; this situation has brought to light an important question.
It doesn’t seem right that the NCAA doesn’t currently require schools to even set their own guidelines, yet if a school does violate their own policies, they are subject to NCAA investigation.
Rather than leaving it up to the schools themselves, should the NCAA mandate that each of them follow a uniform set of drug testing guidelines established by the NCAA?
I think so. As it stands now, the inconsistencies in policies and consequences create an un-level playing field.
The NCAA, as a governing organization, should require all schools to follow the same rules/regulations and disciplinary procedures when it comes to drug testing. Consistency among all member programs would be much easier for the NCAA to police, and make things more fair for all schools involved.
