Whether it is Major League Baseball, the National Football League or the NCAA, drug testing has become the rule and not the exception.

Such is not the case in the NAIA.

"We don't have a testing policy," NAIA senior vice president John Leavens said. "We have guidelines where student-athletes take responsibility for their actions, and institutions have to take care of their student-athletes."

The NAIA, which encompasses 287 schools, does have expectations and communicates them to its member schools, but when it comes to drug testing and education, it is left up to the individual schools.

"We do have schools submit information for a year-end report where schools indicate if they are active in nine different areas," Leavens said. "Things like requiring classwork dealing with substance abuse, videos, substance abuse seminars and a drug awareness week."

Leavens said while he did not have specific data on the number of schools that conduct their own drug testing, he said most favored education over the testing.

Neither South Dakota School of Mines & Technology nor Black Hills State University has a drug testing policy in place. Both institutions do provide education on the issue, and both athletic directors at the respective schools said they would favor tests.

Mines AD Dick Kaiser, who spent the past 10 years as the athletic director at NCAA Division III Defiance College in Ohio, said testing is important even if it only identifies one or two users.

"We viewed it as a deterrent to any drug use," he said. "I think we tested for six or seven years at Defiance and had maybe six or seven positives, but if that provides a reason for kids to stop then it works."

While the NAIA does not do drug testing, the NCAA does test at every division. At the Division I and Division II level, there is year-round testing both in and out of season.

"We focus pretty heavily in football and all other sports are more weighted toward existing data with drug use in each sport," NCAA associate director of health of safety Mary Wilfert said. "In all three divisions, we do the championship drug test programs. We test at championships of every sport, and you are guaranteed to be tested every five years and some may be every year."

The NCAA tests for steroids and masking agents, which began at championships in 1986 and the year-round tests began in 1990. The tests are processed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which oversees Olympic drug testing.

The cost of the tests, which are all urine based, are paid for through an NCAA general fund with any additional testing done by the schools themselves and paid for at their cost.

Yellow Jacket athletic director Jhett Albers said he would be in favor of random drug testing, but said BHSU does have policy established for dealing with drug and substance abuse issues.

Dakota Athletic Conference commissioner Lavern Jessen said that there has been little to no discussion about adding drug testing within the conference.

"I have never heard it discussed at any commissioner or athletic director meeting," Jessen said. "Drug testing would be good at any level, but for it to be effective it would be very costly and that may play a part in it."

Cost of the tests can vary greatly depending on what kind of test and what is being tested for, but Kaiser said at Defiance the cost ranged between $50 and $65 per athlete.

Leavens said the topic of drug testing at the NAIA level has come up over the years, but has never progressed past the talking phase. The need for the tests has not been determined to be great, but Leavens also acknowledged that the NAI has not conducted a formal study to determine if drug use among its athletes is prevalent.

"It is an important issue and I don't think our position is turning a blind eye," Leavens said. "We encourage our institutions to take an active role in educating the athletes and the student body."