Thus, a baseball team whose school did not test for steroids and did not make the NCAA Tournament could go the entire season without being tested for steroids.

The lack of comprehensive testing has given college baseball players an opening to exploit, some coaches said.

"I think steroids in college baseball is getting out of hand," said East Carolina head coach Randy Mazey, although he said it has not been an issue with his team. "It filters down from the majors. Steroids in college baseball is a problem."

N.C. State head coach Elliott Avent also said he didn't have a problem on his team but believes steroid use is growing overall.

"You hear things in this business. I've heard things [about steroids in college baseball] for the past four or five years," Avent said. "I think it has trickled down [from the major leagues]. I think most things from pro sports trickle down. Anything that happens from earrings to goatees, you're going to see it trickle down. Something as serious as steroids, you'd just think they'd be more careful.

"We're going to have to get a hold of it."

The ACC has responded by scheduling a symposium on performance-enhancing drugs today in Jacksonville, Fla., the day before the ACC Baseball Tournament opens in that city.

Still, the NCAA does not appear likely to change its approach to steroid testing soon.

Wake Forest athletics director Ron Wellman, a former college baseball coach, said he thinks the programs and policies of individual institutions are enough to monitor steroid abuse.

"Every university has the opportunity to run its own testing. Its a bit short-sighted to blame the NCAA," Wellman said. "We shouldn't be blaming others when we have the opportunity to conduct those tests. ... To look to big brother for that to be done is a bit short-sighted."

Gaps in testing

The NCAA started testing football players and track athletes for steroids in 1990 because those were the two sports most likely to use banned performance enhancers. The NCAA tested those two sports annually until 2004, when the association decided to test football and one other sport that was randomly selected. All sports are currently tested during NCAA postseason play.

Drug and steroid enforcement for sports other than football during the regular season is in the hands of the schools -- not the NCAA. NCAA spokesman Kent Barrett said schools have their own testing procedures and penalties and if a school finds that a player has violated its drug policy, then the institution must enforce its own penalty. If it doesn't, then the school could be investigated by the NCAA, Barrett said.

"We can only do as much as our membership allows through the legislative process," Barrett said. "There are 360,000 student athletes [in the country]. If people want us to test every single one of them, that's going to be difficult resource-wise."

East Carolina athletics director Terry Holland and Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky both said they would consider annual testing by individual schools for sports beyond football but said testing athletes would be expensive. Most major steroid testing in the United States takes place at a UCLA laboratory, run by Dr. Don Catlin, who said a steroid test costs from $90-$150.

Some college baseball players said they were not tested by the NCAA during their college careers.

"I never got tested," former NCSU player Daniel Caldwell said. "Not one time."

Caldwell did say he was tested by N.C. State about 10 times. He said he heard rumors of steroid use but he had no first-hand knowledge of it.

Meanwhile, the numbers of college baseball players using performance enhancers has been creeping up. In 1993, 0.7 percent of college baseball players admitted using anabolic steroids in an NCAA anonymous survey of college athletes. That number was lower than men's basketball (2.6 percent), women's basketball (1.5), softball (1.7), women's tennis (2.7) and women's track and field (2.7) in the same year.

But by 2001 (the most recent year for which the NCAA has data), 2.3 percent of college baseball players admitted using anabolic steroids in the same survey. Only football (3.0 percent) had a higher percentage.

Unlevel playing field

Last month, two former Duke players told the university's school newspaper they used steroids in the summer of 2002. One of those players said Blue Devils head coach Bill Hillier implied that the players should use steroids.

Hillier told the The News & Observer the accusations were false and created by disgruntled former players.

ECU's Mazey said his players have told him steroid use is rampant in college baseball.

"Our players go off and play summer ball with players from other schools. Our guys come back and tell us stories from players at other schools [being on steroids]. The information I've heard leads me to believe that there is a big problem," Mazey said. "When you get a chance to get an advantage and not get caught, people are going to do that.

"It's been a problem for a long time. It creates an unlevel playing field."

North Carolina head coach Mike Fox and senior associate athletics director Larry Gallo said they had no knowledge of steroid problems and had not heard of steroids being a problem on the college level. Gallo declined say if any Tar Heels players had failed steroid testing.

UNC athletics director Dick Baddour said he doesn't believe steroids are a big problem in college baseball but did say the Tar Heels are re-evaluating their substance abuse policy.

For now, the NCAA is willing to listen to concerns -- but it's not on the brink of major reform when it comes to monitoring steroid use.

"If anyone has any information about anyone using steroids, I hope they bring it to our attention," NCAA president Myles Brand said. "Throwing out grenades over the fence is not the right way to treat this problem. It's much too serious for that. Blanket accusations just don't go anywhere.

"We will take information either confidentially or in person, and we would hope that anyone who has those accusations to make would bring them to us, and we will act appropriately."

Staff writer Jaymes Powell Jr. can be reached at 829-4556 or jaymesp@newsobserver.com