ATLANTA, Ga.–The Atlanta Business Chronicle ran a bottom-half, front-page piece in this week’s issue on the huge costs associated with landing the number one recruiting class in the nation. In “Here’s how much it costs to the land the No. 1 recruiting class,” writer Eric Jackson took a fairly deep dive into the numbers.
That the preeminent local Atlanta business publication (founded 1978) cares so much about the nuances of the business end of American college football shows the true prominence of the old amateur sport in the city, especially when considering that Georgia football is based in Athens, Ga., fairly nearby, yet outside Greater Metro Atlanta’s wide suburban sprawl.
The reporting indicated that UGA spent $3.7 million in the 2019 fiscal year on football recruiting, with the second biggest spenders in the nation at neighboring state school Alabama spending $2.6 million.
Athletic director Greg McGarity was quoted as saying, “We basically do what we need to from a financial standpoint to support our football program in all areas; that includes recruiting.”
On recruiting efforts, UGA spent $2.2 million back in 2016, which had swelled only slightly to $2.6 million by 2018. The huge leap to $3.7 million put Georgia in a spending class of its own.