MADISON, Wis. — When it comes to dinner, Wisconsin student-athletes won't know what's on the menu until they enter the dining hall below Camp Randall Stadium and find the chalkboard: steak, it might read, or prime rib, or even crab legs, the latter a post-victory reward during the football program's run under former coach Gary Andersen.
Breakfast, with its static daily fare, is different. Eggs and potatoes, oatmeal and cereal, granola and fruit, and enough to feed the Badgers' entire starting offensive line, not to mention their backups. It's all you can eat, by the way — though nutritionists in the university's sports medicine department would prefer a more balanced approach.
If hunger calls later in the day, student-athletes can stop by the Badgers' enhanced training table for snacks or energy bars. If not there, a player can grab the same at similar layouts — what the athletic department calls "refueling stations" — located in the weight room or locker rooms.
All three of these feeding areas — the breakfast in the dining hall, the training table or the refueling stations — are new to Wisconsin, as part of a rule passed by the NCAA's Legislative Council allowing student-athletes unlimited access to food and snacks. Before the rule was enacted last April, student-athletes received three meals a day, much like a traditional student, or a food stipend.
"When the NCAA lifted the restrictions on food, I was able to do something that I always wanted to do, and that's have all the student-athletes eat together," Wisconsin athletics director Barry Alvarez said. "We think it's important. You always look for an edge in athletics. We think by doing things right, by eating right, we can get an edge."
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The measure doesn't only allow athletes across all sports access to the same meals; it also allows the same access for student-athletes both on and off scholarship. This is a new development: Before the legislation was passed, only those on scholarship were allowed use of an athletic department's training table.
At Oregon, all student-athletes are given a breakfast and brunch station that runs until noon — since many teams practice in the mornings — and a midday snack setup in an athletes-only student center. Before the measure was passed, Oregon's teams often relied heavily on sports supplements for energy; since the start of this academic year, however, student-athletes are able to find healthier and more consistent ways to gain energy, retain energy and help recover from injuries — all under the watchful eye of the university's nutrition staff.
"This is why we got into the profession, because we want to make an impact on the health and performance of the student-athletes' lives," said Pratik Patel, the director of nutrition for Oregon's athletic department.
"Our motto for football here is 'win the day,' and what I like to say is fuel the day, hydrate the day, ensure you're eating and drinking like you're supposed to be doing as consistently as possible for that day over the course of a week. So you know that at the end of it, it's going to contribute to success day to day and show up on game day when that time comes around."
Nebraska has budgeted an extra $1.2 million to the new legislation; in total, the university will devote $3.2 million for sports nutrition, with $2.1 million going toward food and supplemental items, $1 million for payroll expenses and the remainder for equipment and miscellaneous operating costs. Southern California, which houses 20 men's and women's sports, estimated an increase of $1 million to its bottom line.
But the changes come with a cost, at Wisconsin and elsewhere. For the current fiscal year, beginning on July 1, 2014, and running through June 30, 2015, Wisconsin will spend $842,000 for breakfast, $177,504 for the beefed-up training table and $177,504 for the refueling stations — for a total of $1,232,404 in annual new costs to the athletic department.
Eleven schools with major-conference football programs that submitted financial totals to USA TODAY Sports budgeted an average increase of nearly $600,000 for the new legislation, with numbers ranging from Nebraska, Wisconsin and USC on the higher end to Utah, Colorado and Oregon State on the lower end — the Buffaloes and Beavers have allotted an increase of $175,000 and $215,000 for the measure, respectively.
"That's real money, and I understand that, but I'm all in favor of it," NCAA President Mark Emmert said. "They were going to spend that money anyway. It wasn't like they were taking that and $700,000 and sending it to the chemistry department. They were going to spend it on the locker room, or they were going to spend it on the video system.
"Spend it on kids. So they're spending it to give kids better nutrition."
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Those schools outside the major-conference picture — universities participating in leagues without an automatic bid to the College Football Playoff bowls — have allocated smaller amounts toward the new legislation, with one notable exception: Boise State will spend approximately $500,000 providing unlimited food and snacks to student-athletes, more than the totals budgeted by Colorado, Utah, Oregon State, Arizona State, Indiana and South Carolina.
But for most universities without major-conference resources, meeting the demands of the new legislation requires a degree of inventiveness.
East Carolina, for example, lacks the facilities needed to house a Wisconsin-like feeding area for its hundreds of student-athletes — those with a full scholarship, a partial scholarship or without a scholarship at all. What the school does have, however, is an "open-access" meal plan, one that allows all students living on campus, whether on a team or otherwise, entry to any dining hall at any time.
That takes care of student-athletes living on campus, ECU athletics director Jeff Compher said. Those living off campus, meanwhile, are given a card allowing access to four meals each week at the many on-campus dining areas. It's a pay-as-you-go plan, meaning off-campus student-athletes would be charged based on what meal they chose; utilizing this plan afforded the university the opportunity to not outlay a huge sum of money in advance, Compher said.
In addition to the $80,000 already at the disposal of its strength and conditioning staff for snacks, milk and protein drinks, ECU estimated a total cost of $300,000 for the legislation. The school spent half of that amount during the fall semester, Compher estimated.
"We thought we'd take advantage of existing facilities and existing meal plans," he said. "With the access that regular students have for dining halls and other kinds of meal services on campus, this option makes a lot of sense for us. And I think it makes sense for other people at other universities as well.
"This is a way to really help all of our student-athletes, not just the ones who may or may not be on scholarship. I think they really like it from that perspective, because it doesn't differentiate. If you're on a team, you have access to this opportunity."
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Much like the debate over cost of attendance, a hot-button topic among NCAA institutions, the food legislation also fits into a bigger theme across college sports: For schools adopting the measure, the slightest edge — in this case, how an athletic department feeds its student-athletes — can provide a recruiting advantage.