Georgia's yearly college football recruiting spending reached $4.5 million, one-third more than any other school

[BleedGopher]

per USA Today:

Georgia football is recruiting at an elite level and its athletic department is sparing no expense for the two-time national champions.

The Bulldogs spent just over $4.5 million on football recruiting during the school's 2022 fiscal year, according to an NCAA financial report the athletics department provided Wednesday to the Athens Banner-Herald in response to an open-records request.

No other program at a Power Five public school has come close to that number so far for 2022.

Texas A&M is No. 2 at $2.98 million and Tennessee is No. 3 at $2.92 million, followed by Texas at $2.44 million and Alabama at $2.32 million, according to documents obtained by the USA TODAY Network in partnership with the Knight-Newhouse Data project at Syracuse University.

Michigan, at $2.24 million (or less than half of Georgia's total), is the only other school to report having spent more than $1.85 million.

Georgia's yearly college football recruiting spending reached $4.5 million, one-third more than any other school

Georgia is winning on the field and spending more on recruiting than any college football program.

www.usatoday.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Do any of the schools budget the same way?

 

[Gophers_4life]

Would love to know what that translates into on even just average dollars per recruit that came on campus in some capacity such that they were allowed to pay for (part of) it.

If you say 200 total recruits in that cycle for the $4.5M figure, that's $22.5k per recruit ....

 

[60's Guy]

I have done no research but there was another article that said Georgia far and away had the most elite recruits within 100 miles of campus. It's going to cost more to recruit guys in Florida, California etc if you are in Minnesota...so they are truly spending more money and for different things than a lot of other programs. That's two advantages.
What is the money spent on? Do they have way more support personnel salaries? Some diverted to NIL? They bought their own limos? New iphone to each recruit is only 5% of the $22.5K number but there are salaries, airfare for some recruits but not most at Georgia?
2 analysts versus 10
$1 million versus $4.5 million in the recruiting budget
this could be a real long list of advantages versus Minnesota
Maybe their BBQ is in the Bahamas?

 

[fmlizard]

I have done no research but there was another article that said Georgia far and away had the most elite recruits within 100 miles of campus. It's going to cost more to recruit guys in Florida, California etc if you are in Minnesota...so they are truly spending more money and for different things than a lot of other programs. That's two advantages.
What is the money spent on? Do they have way more support personnel salaries? Some diverted to NIL? They bought their own limos? New iphone to each recruit is only 5% of the $22.5K number but there are salaries, airfare for some recruits but not most at Georgia?
2 analysts versus 10
$1 million versus $4.5 million in the recruiting budget
this could be a real long list of advantages versus Minnesota
Maybe their BBQ is in the Bahamas?

I thought Georgia would be loaded with Georgia kids but not really. Of the 26 enrolled or signed NLI from 2023, only 5 are from Georgia. More guys from Tampa Bay than Atlanta. But most are from the Southeast.

 

[U2Gopher]

I thought Georgia would be loaded with Georgia kids but not really. Of the 26 enrolled or signed NLI from 2023, only 5 are from Georgia. More guys from Tampa Bay than Atlanta. But most are from the Southeast.

It was more in state heavy prior to Smart, but Kirby came in with a plan right off the bat to recruit nationally. He saw first hand at Alabama that recruiting nationally is necessary to sustain the success. Also, the talent base in Georgia is so rich, that with Alabama, Florida, Clemson, Auburn, Tennessee, etc coming across the line and getting their share, Georgia can’t do it all with Georgia kids.

I do not know the monetary breakdown of UGA’s recruiting budget, but Kirby made sure before accepting the job that the recruiting department was going to be absolutely top notch when it came to resources and personnel. Some others, like Florida, have larger overall staffs, but Georgia has plenty of top notch folks working overtime on nothing but recruiting.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I thought Georgia would be loaded with Georgia kids but not really. Of the 26 enrolled or signed NLI from 2023, only 5 are from Georgia. More guys from Tampa Bay than Atlanta. But most are from the Southeast.

Generally speaking it seems if you want to be at the tip top you recruit everywhere.

 

[mngolf]

Generally speaking it seems if you want to be at the tip top you recruit everywhere.

Slab, you're going to have to expand your recruiting area. A 10' radius isn't good enough. At least check with the next door neighbors and across the street.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Slab, you're going to have to expand your recruiting area. A 10' radius isn't good enough. At least check with the next door neighbors and across the street.

There are cheese poofs within 10’ of me. I’m good.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Would be interesting to see how they are spending the money. Georgia being up near the top in amount spent on recruiting is not surprising but being 2 million+ more than everyone else is surprising.

First class tickets everywhere, super fancy hotels/meals on recruiting visits, higher than average salaries for recruiting personnel.....an extra 2 million beyond the other big spenders is a pretty impressive sized gap.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Right. They outspent Texas by $2M.

The school that did this kind of thing:

8 of Texas’ most ridiculous expenditures during top recruit Arch Manning’s official visit

Here’s a rundown of how Texas spent $280,000 hosting Manning and eight other recruits back in June.

ftw.usatoday.com

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Would be interesting to see how they are spending the money. Georgia being up near the top in amount spent on recruiting is not surprising but being 2 million+ more than everyone else is surprising.

First class tickets everywhere, super fancy hotels/meals on recruiting visits, higher than average salaries for recruiting personnel.....an extra 2 million beyond the other big spenders is a pretty impressive sized gap.

I’m thinking this is a budgeting/ accounting thing.

Coach travel some places is just “travel”, other places tagged as “recruiting” and so on.

 

[MNVCGUY]

I’m thinking this is a budgeting/ accounting thing.

Coach travel some places is just “travel”, other places tagged as “recruiting” and so on.

That definitely could explain some of it. May be hiding some expenses by calling them recruiting as well. Of course you know the pressure will be on A&M, Alabama and others to up their recruiting budgets by 2 million in order to keep up

 

[4four4]

If I'm the USFL I change my hold business model and start drafting high school elite football players at their 16th birthday and age out 20 years old developing them for the NFL. Then ask for training compensation like the CHL and the NHL have.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

That definitely could explain some of it. May be hiding some expenses by calling them recruiting as well. Of course you know the pressure will be on A&M, Alabama and others to up their recruiting budgets by 2 million in order to keep up

Someone also maybe has a fund that donors can give to explicitly for recruiting. With the same idea