College Athletics

Steroid use among college athletes is higher than previously estimated, perhaps as high as 29% among football players, according to researchers who asked universities to estimate use among opponents.

A professor in Penn State’s college of health and human development said that his study sets an “upper limit” of actual anabolic steroid use among college athletes, whereas an NCAA study done last year set the lower limit.

Charles Yesalis said that an average of 14.7% of the males and 5.9% of the female athletes in all sports surveyed reported steroid use. A 1989 NCAA study based on self-reporting estimated steroid use at less than 5%.

The study projected steroid use at 29.3% for football teams, and 20.6% among men’s track and field teams.