A 5-star LSU DB’s drug-suspension battle, explained quickly

Kristian Fulton is slated to miss his second straight season because of an NCAA drug suspension that isn’t even for using drugs. He’s trying to get his punishment reduced.

LSU cornerback Kristian Fulton was a five-star recruit in the class of 2016, a consensus top-25 prospect. By now, he was supposed to be a lockdown part of the Tigers’ secondary.

He’s not. Fulton played briefly as a freshman in 2016, but he hasn’t seen game action since. He’s been serving one of the harsher, more unusual suspensions the NCAA can give out.

In 2017, Fulton tried to cheat an NCAA drug test. He got caught.

In February of that year, Fulton took an NCAA-mandated test for performance-enhancing drugs. What happened then is not in dispute: Fulton admits he tried to cheat.

Sports Illustrated reported in the most detail yet on Fulton’s case in June 2018:

Documents detail the event on Feb. 2, 2017 at LSU’s Broussard Hall. The test administer, Jason Shoemake, noticed Fulton pouring the contents of a small bottle into the beaker the player was expected to fill with his own sample. When approached, Fulton poured the contents of the beaker into a urinal and began to fill the beaker with his own urine sample.

Fulton then passed the drug test without cheating. But the NCAA suspended him for two years, a tougher penalty than he’d have gotten for a failed test.

Fulton’s dad, Keith, told the magazine that his son thought the test was also for marijuana, and that he’d smoked two days beforehand. Weed is on the NCAA’s banned-substances list, and players are subject to tests for it. They are not usually hard to beat, but this wasn’t that.

If a player “attempts to alter the integrity” of a drug test, he gets suspended for two years from the date of the act. He’s also charged with two seasons of competition, meaning that if nothing changes, Fulton can’t play for LSU again until he’s a senior by eligibility:

A student-athlete who is involved in a case of clearly observed tampering with an NCAA drug-test sample, as documented by a drug-testing crew member, shall be charged with the loss of a minimum of two seasons of competition in all sports and shall remain ineligible for all regular-season and postseason competition during the time period ending two calendar years (730 days) from the date of the tampering.

The NCAA’s penalty for an actual positive PED test is one year.

Fulton didn’t test positive for PEDs, of course, but his two-year suspension illustrates a point: The NCAA is harder on players who cheat tests than players who use PEDs.

That’s not out of line with how colleges handle non-drug test cheating. Many will just expel any student whom they find cheated in class. If a player doesn’t cheat but merely fails to get the grades to stay eligible, he’s rarely kicked out. He just has to get his grades up.

Fulton is now pressing the NCAA to end his suspension a season early.

Fulton’s lawyer says the NCAA is reopening his case.

The SI report, drawing on interviews and documents, says Fulton’s lawyer is arguing for a shortened suspension “on three fronts: (1) the absence of due process in the drug-testing appeals structure, (2) the lack of drug-testing education given to Fulton and (3) presenting new evidence that calls into question the credibility of the drug-testing procedure.”

Fulton appealed his suspension last year, but the NCAA denied it. The NCAA isn’t an actual court, and normally, what qualifies as “due process” in the NCAA is whatever the NCAA decides is due process. The NCAA can make exceptions to its rules or grant waivers whenever it wants, but it’s hard to see a silver bullet that gets Fulton on the field in 2018.

Fulton is a serious talent. He could give LSU a boost if he returned.

How Fulton would play after a whole season without game action (or two full seasons, if his latest appeal fails) is impossible to know. But he was an absolute top-of-the-line recruit not long ago, and nothing’s stopped him from practicing and working out for the last year. It’s really unlikely that he’s not good enough to play in the SEC West, though he could be rusty.

The Tigers have blue-chip DBs all over their secondary, and they might not need Fulton to field a good pass defense in 2018. But he would probably help.