ATHENS — There is a reason why drug-testing in college athletics remains such a mystery. It’s because nobody wants to talk about it.
By all accounts, at least two Georgia football stars will miss games next season because they failed random drug tests conducted by the school. But we know that only because the high school coach of one of those players was willing to talk about it.
Alan Ingram, the head football coach at Seminole County, said his former player Bacarri Rambo was one of at least five Georgia players who failed a drug test ordered by the athletic department (because of marijuana use) shortly after Rambo returned to Athens from a spring-break trip to Florida in March. Fellow defensive star Alec Ogletree also tested positive for marijuana use at that time, according to Ingram and several published reports citing anonymous sources.
But Georgia will neither confirm nor deny the reports. UGA will not even acknowledge that drug tests were administered during the time frame alleged.
“We just don’t comment on that,” Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said. “ It’s nobody’s business. It’s our business.”
A Freedom of Information Act request by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for records that might detail when and where drug tests have been conducted this year was denied, citing the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). And questions directed to UGA athletic department administrators were deflected from one person to another.
Asked about UGA’s drug-testing procedures, McGarity referred the questions to executive associate AD Carla Williams, “our point person regarding anything that has to do with our drug policy,” he said.
But when asked for specifics such as how often the school administers drug tests, Williams directed the questions to Ron Courson, UGA’s director of sports medicine. Courson declined to be interviewed through a spokesman.
Back to McGarity: “I don’t feel like we should be obligated to comment on violations of team policy or potential violations. That’s an internal issue. We’ll deal with those at an appropriate time, if there’s anything to talk about.”
We do know that drug-testing is important to Georgia. The athletic department has spent $328,270.43 to test its athletes since 2001, according to records provided to the AJC. That’s an average of $27,355 a year. Georgia has already spent $29,137.05 for fiscal-year 2012.
According to Vince Dooley, a former head football coach and athletic director, UGA was among the first programs in the country to institute its own internal drug-testing program when it did so in 1981.
“We were among the first; maybe the first, I’m not sure,” said Dooley, who was coming off a national championship that year. “Ours was a model for a good while. We realized that there was a serious problem. After a lot of study, including consultation with the NFL — because we were totally ignorant on this until we got educated — we installed a drug program.”
Georgia’s current policy, as outlined in its 2011-12 Student-Athlete Handbook, is among the toughest in the country. According to an article published by AOL Fanhouse in 2010, Georgia is one of two programs in the SEC (Kentucky is the other) and six nationwide that suspends players for one game for a first offense of its drug policy. A second marijuana offense at UGA calls for a suspension from 30 percent of competition dates and a third results in dismissal.
Georgia coach Mark Richt supports the hard line.
“Every rule we have is for the benefit of these guys and for the team,” Richt said. “The discipline that we give does involve playing time, and that’s the thing guys covet the most. When you discipline guys and you take playing time away, I’m hoping that is something that sticks enough where it will change that individuals’ behavior for the better.”
Offensive lineman Chris Burnette said he has been subjected to drug tests twice at Georgia, once by the NCAA and once by the school. He said he doesn’t have a problem with it.
“Not really,” Burnette said. “I feel like, if you look at the workplace, you can’t have a job without them seeing what you’re doing when it comes to drugs. For us, playing college football is just like a job. I’m actually glad about the proactiveness of them doing drug tests. In the long run, if they can nip it now, it won’t cost as much later.”
Many believe such self-policing puts Georgia at a competitive disadvantage. The Bulldogs were missing Rambo, an All-American safety, when they lost to Boise State in the season opener last year. Georgia could be missing as many as four defensive starters for a potentially tough SEC road game against Missouri in the second game of this season.
There are proponents of across-the-board drug-testing within each conference, if not nationwide. That has been discussed in the SEC, but to date, conference ADs have reached an agreement on the subject.
“At this time the institutions have elected not to have a conference-wide drug-testing policy,” said Charles Bloom, SEC associate commissioner for media relations. “It’s a topic that has been on the agenda of previous ADs meetings and will likely be periodically in the future. But I’m not sure when it will be next.”
Richt remains skeptical.
“I don’t know if that would ever happen,” he said. “I think every institution is going to make their decisions on what they feel is in the best interest of their student-athletes. ... I don’t want to comment on anybody else’s policies, but it’d be interesting to see that happen. I just don’t know if it ever would happen.”
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