Kait Freeberg
Special to Mustang News
Michael Bolden is big. He works hard in school and harder on the basketball court. And he gets hungry.
“After practice, I will eat something at home like burgers or microwavable foods like taquitos, or I will go to Chipotle,” Bolden, who is 6-foot-6, 192 pounds, said. “I try to catch deals like Taco Tuesdays. I try not to eat out too much, but sometimes I am so tired of the whole cooking process.”
On April 24, the NCAA Board of Directors passed new legislation that will allow meals and snacks to be given to Division I student-athletes starting next school year. According to an article from the NCAA website, this measure was taken to help athletes meet their nutritional needs and is in addition to the meal plan provided by their scholarships.
Bolden, a junior wing on the Cal Poly men’s basketball team, is one of many scholarship athletes at Cal Poly. Bolden is therefore awarded a lump sum of money that is dispersed to him at the beginning of every quarter.
“I put aside my rent money and I pay that right away, then the rest is basically food or gas or little things like that,” he said.
Bolden said two-thirds of his disbursement is allocated toward rent.
“(With) probably like a month left, I run out of the money,” he said. “Then I ask my mom for money. I can’t really work because of school, and basketball-wise, I just don’t have time.”
Bolden said when the basketball team is on the road, their meals are paid for.
“But in the fall, we run out of money faster,” he said.
Not all athletes are on scholarships, including junior tight end for the Cal Poly football team Austin Albison.
“I rely on my parents to give me money for food during the season,” he said.
Without parental support, Albison said he would starve. Outside of season and spring ball, Albison supports himself by working security for Miller Event Management.
Many student-athletes cannot find time for a job because of the amount of time they are in season or in practice, which can last three or more hours per day.
Albison, who has many friends on the football team who are on scholarship, said during the season he and his teammates are on campus from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. They go through food quickly, and even though many of them bring snacks from home, they usually eat meals on campus.
The issue of student-athletes’ nutrition was epitomized when Shabazz Napier, a University of Connecticut men’s basketball player, said in an interview that sometimes after practice or a game, he goes to bed starving because he cannot afford food. Though the NCAA said his comment did not push this legislation, the two events happened relatively close to one another.
Male student-athletes should be eating approximately 4,000-4,500 calories per day, said Morgan Podmajersky, a university research assistant who has been working closely with associate professor Scott Reaves and the Cal Poly men’s basketball team to create a unique diet for each player.
“People might think that athletes have access to all the food they want,” said Podmajersky.
But Reaves said student-athletes won’t overeat if they have guidelines on what to eat.
Contrary to the public opinion, the new legislation will not give student-athletes more money, said Barbara Martinez, assistant athletic director for compliance and senior woman administrator.
“It just allows us to give them more nutrition,” Martinez said. “And it will apply to all sports (at Cal Poly). This just really allows us to meet their nutritional needs when we feel necessary.”
If an athlete works out for three hours in the morning and is hungry or thirsty after practice, the coach will now be able to give them snacks. They need to eat within 30 minutes after their workout to rebuild their muscle. Before the new legislation, coaches could only give athletes fruits, nuts and bagels. Now, the coaches can potentially give them a bagel with peanut butter, an orange and some donuts or Jamba Juice, Martinez said.
“Every institution is different in what they can afford,” Martinez said. “Cal Poly to, let’s say, University of Oregon, who has lots of money — their nutritional snacks are going to be much better … They are sponsored by Nike.”
Meals or snacks may also be provided to a player who is representing the school. Martinez gave the example of a basketball player who is volunteering at an elementary school, playing with the children. Because they are taking their own time to do this, they will receive food for it.
“They cannot miss class,” Martinez said. “If they are doing an activity to promote their sport or Cal Poly, there is a form that needs to be filled out, there needs to be prior approval.”
There is no limit to the amount of events student-athletes can help out with, she said.
Athletes can also participate in a fundraiser or speak at a rotary meeting or club and receive lunch for those activities, Martinez said.
One opposition to the legislation is that coaches could take advantage of the rule or give players unhealthy food, but that won’t happen, Martinez said. The coach wants their players to perform well, so they will feed them nutritional foods.
The new NCAA legislation will go into effect August 1, 2014. For more details on the new legislation, check out the proposal documents.