This week, the Big Ten conference signed new media rights deals with Fox, CBS, and NBC that are worth more than $7 billion combined, marking the richest annual deal for any college sports league to date. Following that news, one media outlet decided to post a Tweet criticizing unpaid student-athletes for spending too much of their Big Ten athletic program’s money on food.
On Thursday, Front Office Sports sent a Tweet highlighting that Rutgers football players spent $450,000 on food orders paid by the university’s athletic program while it operated at a $73 million deficit.
Rutgers Football players have expensed $450,000 worth of DoorDash orders to the university over the past two years, per @northjersey.
Athletes were permitted to do so during COVID quarantines.
At the same time, Rutgers Athletics operated at a $73 million deficit. pic.twitter.com/AWvzquuIRI
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) August 19, 2022
“Rutgers Football players have expensed $450,000 worth of DoorDash orders to the university over the past two years, per @northjersey,” the Tweet read. “Athletes were permitted to do so during COVID quarantines. At the same time, Rutgers Athletics operated at a $73 million deficit.”
This Tweet was posted within 24 hours of news that Rutgers would be getting approximately $60 million a year from the Big Ten’s new media rights deals – an equal share with the other 15 programs in the conference despite generating the least revenue for the conference.
Naturally, this did not go over too well with the college football world, who blasted Front Office Sports for the poor and ultimately commentary.
damn, wait until you hear about the $60,000,000 they're about to find in their couch every year for the next 7 years https://t.co/1Q6xnAmPA2
— lukezim (@lukezim) August 19, 2022
$225k a year on a $73 million deficit is a forgotten line in a budget. also it’s food. how are we getting upset about feeding people https://t.co/GpIyJdJK7E
— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) August 19, 2022
I wonder if this is a substitue for the meal plans?? If it was a substitute for their scholarship provided meals I bet there's not much difference in the cost https://t.co/RjX7pJJDtr
— Matt Stepp (@Matt_Stepp817) August 19, 2022
Reserving my judgement until I learn if/how much they were tipping https://t.co/F7A9ICW8LX
— Chris Perfett (@chrisperfett) August 19, 2022
this seems … completely fine? https://t.co/BzomOubAvS
— Adam Stites (@AdamStites_) August 19, 2022
CHOPLIFE https://t.co/HIbbiVGIuh
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) August 19, 2022
While the Tweet itself wouldn’t have been great in any context, they could not have picked a worse time to share it.