Oregon redshirt freshman wide receiver Darren Carrington, one of the team's leading wideouts who caught seven passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns in their destruction of Florida State in the Rose Bowl—didn't travel with the team to Texas yesterday for Monday night's national championship game. This morning Oregon coach Mark Helfrich confirmed that Carrington had been ruled ineligible.


What violation did Carrington commit? What horror of horrors did he engage in to lose his eligibility for the biggest game in his career? It must've been bad, right? Multiple outlets have reported that Carrington failed a drug test, but it's CSNNW with the specifics: he tested positive for marijuana. You know, that nightmarish drug the NCAA has said is not performance enhancing, and that Oregon residents voted overwhelmingly to legalize in November.

Fox Sports is reporting that Oregon has already appealed and had it denied, so Carrington will miss the title game as well as half of the 2015 season, the NCAA penalty for testing positive for "street drugs."


Photo via Jae C. Hong/AP