As baseball faces a major scandal over steroid use, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) are joining forces to create the Partnership for Clean Competition, an antidoping research program, the New York Times reported Jan. 11.

The sports groups are joining forces with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to create the new body, contributing $750,000 each annually for four years in an effort to find effective but less expensive ways to detect and prevent the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

The National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and the Professional Golfers Association also are expected to take part.

"The one commonality is that we all have elite athletes, and we all have the responsibility to protect those athletes," said USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth. "To do that, we have to do the research. We have to come up with a very simple, inexpensive testing capability. That's the goal of this organization."