Rutgers football players reportedly spent more than $450,000 on DoorDash for meals and other items – on the university’s dime – from May 2021 through June of this year, according to an investigation from the Bergen Record.
The practice of allowing the players to expense food orders started during the pandemic, Rutgers said, as student-athletes were forced to quarantine for up to two weeks if they had tested positive or been exposed to coronavirus.
Still, as Patch.com noted, that bill ultimately falls to New Jersey taxpayers (Rutgers is a public university), and Rutgers Athletics has operated at a $73 million deficit through the last two years.
Rutgers coach Greg Schiano guided to the team to its first bowl since 2014 last season
The investigation found that athletes had made orders from Outback Steakhouse and Red Lobster, plus pizza, tacos, chicken wings, Chinese food and even pharmacy items – with some orders even coming thousands of miles away from the Rutgers campus near athletes’ hometowns.
One player made orders in New York and Florida on the same day, continuing to order in Florida for the next couple of days, the Record said.
Rutgers did not dispute the hefty tab, and said they were ‘permitted to use DoorDash’ based on COVID guidance from the NCAA.
‘Many of our student-athletes come from economically challenged backgrounds and in addition to how difficult it was to meet their nutritional needs with COVID, this was the best way to look out for our student-athletes’ welfare,’ Rutgers said in a statement.
Rutgers has since switched from Doordash to Grubhub, citing cheaper costs
‘We continued to use DoorDash until June 2022 to provide to-go meal options to student-athletes in instances when a permissible meal was not otherwise available or provided.
‘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.’
The school, which noted that the DoorDash program extended beyond football players to other student-athletes on campus, estimated an average monthly spend of $22.88 for most athletes entitled to free food. There were roughly 19,745 orders placed over the period, Rutgers said.
Rutgers continues to offer free meals to its students (non-food items are no longer permitted), but switched to GrubHub in late June, citing the rival app’s cheaper costs.