The modern game of college football begins long before the players take the field at their respective collegiate programs as the recruiting angle has increased in importance exponentially over the past few decades. Currently, powerhouses of the sport like the Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama Crimson Tide reached their perch by prioritizing and spending on the recruiting trail.
Once upon a time, the Florida Gators were the kill of the hill when it came to drawing the top prep prospects in the nation to Gainesville, but that run ended after the departure of Urban Meyer to the Ohio State Buckeyes. Since then, the Orange and Blue have fallen back into the pack as the program has still been able to draw some amazing talent — for instance, tight end [autotag]Kyle Pitts[/autotag] — but simply has been unable to return to the promised land.
The main focus of head coach Billy Napier’s agenda since he took the reins from Dan Mullen has been on restoring glory to the Swamp by going hard every single hour of every single day throughout the year, regardless of what season it is. While he and his army of staffers have begun to make headway, there is still a steep hill to climb — especially after two-straight losing seasons.
USA TODAY Sports recently released its recruiting expenses for Power Five public universities for the past six years. Florida lands at No. 12 on the six-year average list, tallying a $1,073,675.50 tab over that stretch. In Napier’s debut season, the Gators were at No. 10 overall with a $1,641,320 bill. Note that the COVID years took a large chunk out of most schools’ expenditures, which makes the data set a little bit funky but still solid enough given that all programs were ostensibly affected equally.
The Southeastern Conference holds the top three spots in six-year average with Georgia, Alabama and the Tennessee Volunteers leading the way, followed by the Clemson Tigers, Texas A&M Aggies, Michigan Wolverines, Texas Longhorns, Florida State Seminoles, Oklahoma Sooners and Penn State Nittany Lions, respectively, to round out the top 10; the Arkansas Razorbacks also sit just ahead of UF at No. 11.
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