Will Grier's PED Suspension Is Another Example Of Why College Athletes Need A Union

When Florida quarterback Will Grier was suspended for a year by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs, the university said it would appeal the suspension. Grier is lucky to have a university backing him, but even with that support, it's very unlikely the appeal will be successful.

The NCAA is known for its draconian rules on banned substances, be they steroids or marijuana, and it's also known for taking a hard-line stance on appeals. After all, this is the same organization that took almost four years to clear a player who had traces of a steroid in his body due to a doctor's mistake.

Grier is not going to play again for a year, and he arguably should at least own the bad decision of taking a supplement without first asking the training staff at Florida whether it would be okay. However, the system failed him more than he failed in his decision-making. There are incredible inconsistencies throughout college sports regarding when athletes are tested and how they are punished, with many different interests represented—except, of course, the interests of the athletes themselves.

While the NCAA tests athletes randomly throughout the year, athletes are also subject to testing from their schools. But the thing is, those school testing programs can be designed however the schools want. Some schools will ban players for a few games on the first offense, while others just let them off with a warning. In 2012, the Associated Press reported that players at Notre Dame and Alabama didn't automatically miss games for testing positive for steroids: football coaches themselves had "wide discretion" to tailor punishments at Alabama, while Notre Dame's student-athlete handbook said that a player who failed a test could return to the field once the steroids in question were out of his system. Had Florida administered Grier's test, he likely would have just been suspended for one game.

Instead, his was unlucky with his timing and lost a year.

This isn't the first time this has happened. Two years ago, Michigan basketball player Mitch McGary was suspended for a year for testing positive for marijuana during the NCAA Tournament. McGary wasn't even playing in the tournament, as he was out with an injury, but he also was unlucky with timing. He would not have missed any games on his first positive test and wouldn't have been suspended for a season until his third positive test. But because he was suspended for a year by the NCAA, he was essentially forced to leave school early. Which means that the NCAA's penalty wasn't just unfairly harsh; it was counterproductive to the association's stated educational mission.

If this whole situation tells us anything, it's that Grier really, really needs a union representing him. Not just for a vigorous appeal—Florida will certainly fight for Grier to return to the field—but to ensure that he wouldn't have received such a harsh punishment in the first place.

The reason "union" is such a scary word to some college sports fans is that they assume collective bargaining will be all about money, and the NCAA has been demonizing the idea of athletes with cash in their pockets for more than 100 years. However, as the College Athletes Players Association—the union that hoped to represent Northwestern players—has pointed out, there are a number of things a union bargaining with schools can do outside of earning pay, including negotiating a drug policy.

Now imagine a union consisting of all college football players—or all college athletes—bargaining on a national level with the NCAA. Given that almost 22 percent of college athletes have smoked marijuana in the past year, and that other players have been implicated for accidentally taking a banned substance, drug policies might be one of the first items on the table. And given the precedent set by other leagues—such as NFL players missing just a quarter of their season for performance-enhancing drug use—a union could help athletes get a sensible policy for all types of banned substances.

Without a union, college athletes are forced to live by inconsistent drug rules and harsher-than-necessary punishments. Unilateral power is great for schools, but not so great for Grier, and every other athlete governed without their consent.