Irish Links: How Much Does Notre Dame Spend On Food For The Football Team?

We got one week in the books for our new “Irish Links” and already I’m like- OH DEAR LAWD WHAT DO I LINK? You think that, and then the Notre Dame Fighting Irish- across the entire athletic department, goes ahead and has one hell of a day.

What’s that got to do with food? Well, I’m going to tell you in a minute. First, however, keep in mind that as far as I can tell, we have only been discussing (with seriousness) nutrition for athletes for about 10 years. I say this because we have come a long way since then, and yet... there is so much more to go.

Feed Them. FEEEEED THEM

Football teams are massive. There are around 100 players on each team, and a lot of those guys are pretty big. Big people need a lot of food to maintain their physical excellence. A lot of food also means a lot of money.

When it comes to Notre Dame, trying to find out the real cost of anything seems to be a a bit of a struggle. I didn’t reach out to the school to try and find their own numbers, so I won’t speculate too much about how much they spend- but do you think it’s anywhere near the neighborhood of the Alabama Crimson Tide? (That’s a genuine question and not a passive aggressive way of saying something else). I have a hard time imagining that they do.

According to Pete Sampson on the Irish Illustrated podcast, Notre Dame plans on expanding/renovating the Gug. This will include food services- which doesn’t really exist at Notre Dame inside the Gug. They wheel the stuff in and eat in a lobby.

The Gug isn’t that old, so you can really taste the incompetence of the planners when they first built it at Notre Dame. It’s shocking really, and to think it took this long to correct a fundamental part of a football program’s success... YIKES. There are many reasons that Notre Dame has fallen behind the elite schools over the past 25 years, and this is certainly one of them.

Let’s feed them boys. Everyone else seems to be.

Sunday Was A Day For Champions (And Saturday Too)

Perhaps that is a bit of an overstatement, but Notre Dame had a REALLY good day for its athletic programs.

Men’s Basketball

Notre Dame is in serious contention for that double bye in the ACC tournament after its 64-60 win over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

Women’s Lacrosse

The #9 ranked Irish beat #8 ranked Duke Blue Devils in it’s ACC opener.

Women’s Basketball

Notre Dame WINS THE ACC! The Irish won another ACC title with its 79-61 victory over the Florida State Seminoles.

Women’s Fencing

Notre Dame WINS THE ACC! No, it’s not Groundhog Day. Another Notre Dame program won a conference championship.

Men’s Lacrosse

Michigan SUCKS now and forever, amen.

Softball

Beating the defending national champs- TAKE THAT BOB STOOPS!

Men’s Tennis

Northwestern got a little less wild (yes... I said that).

Women’s Tennis

BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF EVERYTHING GREEN

Track

Them there is gold.

Hockey

Notre Dame split with the Terriers.

Mercenary

I found this article about assistant coaches moving around a bit funny. It contains a video of the head coach for the Arizona State Sun Devils’ head coach Todd Graham talking about assistant coaches. It also contains this gem of an opener- which when thinking about Graham, had me laughing out loud.

“College football is a cesspool of mercenaries. Commitment and loyalty are one-way streets. These programs are hood ornaments for our nation’s best universities, and yet those in charge often set the worst examples.”

So... lol y’all!