It is against collegiate guidelines to provide four flavors of VitaminWater to athletes as a nutritional supplement, recent National Collegiate Athletic Association rules say.

“Power-c,” “B-relaxed,” “Vital-t” and “Balance” flavors contain ingredients that are impermissible by NCAA standards. However, the NCAA deemed it OK for students to purchase these flavors of VitaminWater on their own.

Some Ohio State student athletes expressed concern about the NCAA’s decision.

“It becomes a question of where you draw the line,” said Andrew Zaydak, a junior on the men’s swim team.

Alex Chen, another junior on the men’s swim team, agreed. “I like VitaminWater. Luckily my favorite flavors aren’t on that list,” Chen said with a laugh.

But the ban doesn’t end with universities’ distribution of VitaminWater to student-athletes. “Two VitaminWater varieties, Energy and Rescue, contain ingredients – caffeine and guarana seed extract – that are included on the NCAA’s drug-testing list of banned substances,” said Gail Dent, NCAA spokeswoman. The NCAA places a limit on how much caffeine can be found in student-athletes’ urine tests. However, an average sized healthy man would have to consume 10 20 oz. bottles of VitaminWater Energy or Rescue within several hours of competition to create a positive urine test, Dent said.

In October 2008, each NCAA Division I, II and III coach was sent an e-mail and a frequently asked questions document to clarify the guidelines.

Recently, OSU student athletes received an e-mail message from the NCAA about the finalized VitaminWater decision. The message explicitly stated the parameters of the new guidelines and instructed the recipients with what to do to ensure that they would not have any problems when drug-testing.

Because of how often student-athletes are tested, the ban brought up a concern. “How can VitaminWater that is sold over the counter be considered a performance-enhancer? It’s just one more thing to worry about,” said Patrick Schafer, a sophomore on the men’s hockey team.

OSU athletes said they have been drug tested many times in their collegiate careers.

“I would say I’ve been drug tested easily over 25 times. We are tested almost every two or three weeks,” Schafer said.

Brian Lalley, a senior on the men’s lacrosse team, agreed. “In the last few years OSU has stepped up its testing and I’ve been tested at least 15 times,” Lalley said.

When OSU varsity teams were alerted that the banned flavors would not be served during collegiate contests, they began to see posters throughout their facilities that warned them about the flavors they should avoid, Schafer said.

After a series of confused reports regarding the NCAA’s decision to ban the distribution of particular flavors of VitaminWater to its athletes, the NCAA released a final “for the record” statement Friday to clear up any misconceptions.

OSU is a Coca-Cola campus and VitaminWater is offered in vending machines in several locations, such as the Recreation and Physical Activity Center, where many Buckeye student-athletes train.

“We’ve had a relationship with Coca-Cola for several years. VitaminWater is a branch of the Coca-Cola relationship, so nothing has changed in terms of our partnership. It’s just that the only VitaminWater variety that is visible on our sidelines is VitaminWater Revive, because it contains no ingredients that are impermissible or banned,” Dent said.

Gina Ferrentino can be reached at [email protected].