Rutgers spring practice: Coaches and players welcome new NCAA rule allowing unlimited meals

A new NCAA rule will allow student-athletes unlimited meals and snacks. (Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger)
Dan Duggan | By Dan Duggan | The Star-Ledger
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on April 18, 2014 at 1:30 PM, updated April 18, 2014 at 2:11 PM

What took so long?

That was the widespread reaction around college football to the NCAA's announcement this week that it will allow unlimited meals and snacks for student-athletes.

Previously, athletes received three meals a day or a food stipend. While that may seem like plenty of food for the average student, the dietary needs of football players are different.

"As athletes, you burn more calories than the average student and I think putting a limit on the amount of meals you can have per day, it doesn't really make sense to do so," Rutgers senior defensive end David Milewski said. "I think it's a great rule that they passed. I think it's going to benefit a lot of people... I think it was kind of idiotic for it not to have happened beforehand."

Milewski said players currently get a card with a predetermined amount of meal swipes per semester. Considering most players are trying to gain weight and it's beneficial to eat small meals more frequently throughout the day, those swipes tend to run low.

"It's going to take a lot of stress out of it because you don't have to worry about if you're going to run out of your meals. You don't have to ration your meals throughout the days," Milewski said. "A lot of times toward the end of the semester, because we eat a lot of meals, people end up running low on them to the point where sometimes they end up having zero and having to figure out other ways to find food."

College students with no income invariably turn to fast food when looking for cheap meals.

"That's destructive for everybody," Milewski said. "We want to be eating right. We want to be eating throughout the day. So for our nutrition plan for our team it should help tremendously, just eating smaller meals throughout the day and staying healthy. That's the biggest thing."

'This should help tremendously', Rutgers David Milewski on new food rules Rutgers David Milewski says the new NCAA rules that student-athletes can receive unlimited meals. (Video by John O'Boyle)

The NCAA legislative council made the change on Tuesday. Although the change had been in the works for months, the announcement came a week after UConn guard Shabazz Napier said during the Huskies' national championship run that there are "hungry nights that I go to bed and I'm starving."

The change goes into effect on Aug. 1.

"I think it makes a lot of sense," coach Kyle Flood said. "I never really understood why you can only have one training table meal a day if we're trying to teach these kids about proper nutrition and they're working to the degree that they're working."

This rule comes on the heels of the unionization effort by some Northwestern football players that is looming over college athletics. The National Labor Relations Board ruled in March that the players are employees and can form a union.

The Northwestern players will vote on whether to unionize next week. In the meantime, the topic has led to debate across the country.


Milewski said he respects the efforts of the Northwestern players, but he doesn't think college athletes should get paid.

"We get paid tuition," Milewski said. "I'm going to graduate without any debt, where a lot of my peers are graduating with $60-70,000 in debt. You can't be too greedy. We have to stay humble at this point. We get a lot of stuff, we get treated well, so we can't complain too much. But I would say what they're fighting for in terms of the medical benefits is a worthy battle."