For the last five years, the University of Tennessee has lead the country in recruiting spending for their football program. The expenses include transportation, hotels and meals for recruits and recruiters on official and unofficial visits.
The Tennessee football program spent on average $1.3 million a year on football recruiting. No other college in the nation spent more than $1 million on average.
The only year in the five-year span that Tennessee did not lead the nation was the 2012-2013 season, when Auburn outspent Tennessee by $91,644.
Tennessee spends a total of 60% of their sports budget, yes, for all sports, on their football program.
But it’s not just Tennessee that spends tons of money on recruiting. Five SEC schools make up the top 10, and the top three schools are all in the SEC.
Auburn was second in recruiting expenditures followed by Alabama in third. Arkansas came in seventh while UGA came in at ninth.
One could ask though, how has spending so much money helped Tennessee lately in football, a team that hasn’t reached the SEC Championship game since 2007.