NCAA Division III athletes are going to receive several more perks thanks to a rule passed Saturday.
Rather than only providing food on game days and road trips, Division III schools will also be able to supply athletes with snacks following workouts and practices – even outside of the season.
The NCAA Division III Twitter account announced that the rule “specifies that an institution may provide snacks and permissible nutritional supplements to student-athletes as a benefit incidental to participation in intercollegiate athletics.”
"It really picked up momentum over the past couple of years," University of Mary Hardin-Baylor athletic director Randy Mann told KCEN-TV, an NBC-affiliated station in Texas. "So, to see this pass, it's really a big piece of legislation that we've been waiting on for a long time."
The rule, which is similar to the one adopted at the Division II level in 2015, was adopted during the 2020 NCAA Convention in Anaheim, Calif. and will become effective Aug. 1.
"Whether it's after a morning workout or morning practice, going to class, I think a lot of times, it's just a benefit of health value," UMHB women's basketball coach Mark Morefield told KCEN-TV. "Especially for an athlete, burning so many calories and the endurance that they have.
"All college students are busy with their schoolwork and trying to earn their degrees. And then athletes have weight and conditioning workouts, practice and games on top of that. This lets us help them, with at least one thing."
Momentum for the new snack rule began to build this fall, when the NCAA Legislation Committee and Presidents Council announced their support.
“The committee determined that providing snacks for student-athletes is in the best interest of the students,” Angie Morenz, the Legislation Committee chair, said in an October meeting. “This has been an ongoing conversation for the committee, and the group felt that proposal addresses potential concerns about food stability and nutrition for student-athletes.”
