How much Alabama football players spent in first year of unlimited meals

Much was made about the 2014 NCAA ruling to allow unlimited food for scholarship athletes.

It certainly added value to a full ride while adding to expenses. How much and who ate the most became clear when the 2015-16 NCAA budget information was collected.

According to the document Alabama filed with the NCAA, those meals and snacks cost a total of $838,187 (or 0.58 percent of the department's total expenses).

The NCAA document also provided a snapshot of who ran up the highest bill. And it should not be a surprise.

The Crimson Tide football team accounted for 61.2 percent of the money spent on meals.

The total: $512,656.

Alabama's men's basketball team wasn't far behind in the per-athlete spending. The 12 scholarship players on Avery Johnson's team got an average of $5,725 per player.

For football, that number was $6,031 per athlete.

These totals don't account for meals on the road traveling to games.

Several teams had scholarship totals redacted, making it impossible to calculate the per-player cost. Golf spent the least on the men's side at $6,299 total -- a shade higher than the average football player spent alone.

The men's teams spent $677,088 compared to $161,099 for the women's squads.

"Unlimited snacks? That sounds like good thing," Alabama linebacker Denzel Devall said about the rule when it passed in 2014. "I'm all for it."

A full team-by-team breakdown of how much was spent on unlimited food in 2015-16.

Men's teams	Total	% of total	Schol. athletes	Per athlete
Baseball	$32,485	3.9%	28	$1,160
Basketball	$68,700	8.2%	12	$5,725
Football	$512,656	61.2%	85	$6,031
Golf	$6,299	0.8%	Redacted	n/a
Swim/dive	$28,899	3.4%	29	$997
Tennis	$11,176	1.3%	Redacted	n/a
Track/XC	$16,873	2.0%	28	$603
Women's teams
Basketball	$5,713	0.7%	Redacted	n/a
Golf	$3,595	0.4%	Redacted	n/a
Gymnastics	$13,117	1.6%	Redacted	n/a
Rowing	$42,170	5.0%	37	$1,140
Soccer	$17,379	2.1%	24	$724
Softball	$14,277	1.7%	Redacted	n/a
Swim/dive	$28,497	3.4%	32	$891
Tennis	$5,754	0.7%	Redacted	n/a
Track/XC	$17,073	2.0%	43	$397
Volleyball	$13,524	1.6%	Redacted	n/a