Despite the mounting financial troubles of its athletic department, the Rutgers football team racked up an enormous food delivery bill in recent years.
An ongoing investigation by the Bergen Record found that the university’s football team spent over $450,000 in DoorDash orders from May 2021 to June 2022 — despite Rutgers Athletics running at a $73 million deficit over 2020 and 2021.
Rutgers began the practice during the COVID-affected seasons, when NCAA rules required athletes to be quarantined for up to two weeks if they tested positive for the virus.
“DoorDash was used as a substitute for institutional meals when student-athletes were in quarantine or participating in team activities such as rehab, practice and competition, and food was not provided in the facility,” Rutgers Athletics said in a statement.
The university says it was following the regulations in the NCAA’s COVID Q&A guide.
However, student-athletes were apparently using the service when away from the New Brunswick campus, placing orders from as far away as Florida.
Rutgers is still employing the program but has since switched to GrubHub as its delivery service, citing lower costs.
The Big Ten’s new media rights deal with NBC, Fox, and CBS — valued at over $7 billion — could go a long way toward digging the athletic program out of its financial hole.
