Thanks, Ryan1! Fantastic answer.
No, you have a definitive answer for one school & one sport; others are different. Given the number of schools & the disparity between team sizes & differing budgets & policies there won’t be just one answer.
A powerhouse D1 football budget probably spends more on just trainers than some D3 XC team’s entire budget, including coach & travel expenses.
Equipment travels to away games via one semi-truck/trailer. When the truck leaves depends on how far away the game is, but typically Wednesday or so. A certain amount of staff acts as an advance crew to get there and set stuff up before the main travel party arrives. The standard team travel for games more than ~3 hours drive is via chartered 737, which is typically completely full, and we usually have 5-6 buses for ground transportation.
Isn’t that really a lot of of awfully unhealthy food for athletes? No criticism, I understand that you have to take what’s available on the road, but wouldn’t every sports nutritionist roll their eyes at that much fast food?
We have a full Sports Nutrition staff of registered dietitians who travel with the team, and I’ve been here through three separate coaching staffs, so I can say that this is not an uncommon travel meal plan at all. Before I got into this industry, I thought they would be eating chicken and rice and veggies every day. In reality, it seems like they are trying to consume a ton of calories just to keep weight on with the insane amount of physical activity they are doing. On normal days on campus, there is an athlete-only dining center with a variety of foods available (including a lot of healthy options), and there are fueling stations with a ton of snacks. These guys are encouraged to eat, eat, eat and keep weight on during the season, which can be a real challenge. Keep in mind there are only about six road trips a season in football, so it’s not that many days of pizza and Chik-Fil-A, but nutrition staff could dictate whatever they want the guys to eat and this is what they choose. Dinner the night before the game and breakfast on game day is via hotel catering so it’s not fast food. Guys are starving post-game and will destroy huge amounts of food. Disclaimer: I’m not in the Sports Nutrition department and not an expert in the field, just stating what I see with the team.
Even if they aren’t D1 football athletes trying to pack on the pounds, many college athletes often eat like typical college kids regardless of the sport. It’s not unusual for something like a swim team to eat typical fast food when they travel. And even when they are in school they eat like that. And they go out drinking and do other things like that. They are more like college kids who happen to compete athletically rather than athletes who happen to be in college. If it’s an Olympic or pro athlete, then they’ll be more likely to be on a nutrition plan to maximize performance. But college and HS athletes often eat whatever they want with just a minimal focus on fitness nutrition.
A friend of mine once hosted a college women’s rowing team of maybe 20 people. He and his wife bought mountains of boxed cereal, chips, snacks, pasta, rice, fruit and vegetables, bread, what he figured was an obscene amount of food. The equivalent of several boxes of cereal per person and then some. They were showing up Friday evening and leaving Sunday morning. By Saturday morning the food was gone and they had to basically buy everything a second time while the team was out competing to have food for when they came back.
So there’s a somewhat different example. I think it was the whole team, but it could’ve been a subset where the rest were staying at another host home. In either case it shows just how ravenous college athletes can be and how logistically challenging feeding them is.
A tasteful frock is also nice.
Thank you, that was great fun!
Go 
Big 
Red! (Nebraska)
Yeah, what’s unhealthy for an ordinary desk jockey is not the same as what’s unhealthy for a high-performing athlete. Look up Michael Phelp’s typical breakfast, sometime, for another example.