College football recruiting has emerged as a big-money business in recent years, especially with the implementation of the name, image and likeness rules that have turned the sport into something akin to the wild west — where money flows freely with very little oversight.
But before NIL, recruiting had already become a primary focus for the current juggernauts of the game even in the traditional sense, with coaches hitting the pavement and logging long hours in pursuit of the very best prep prospects. The billable hours of work along with travel and hosting costs — among other expenses — amount to the millions these days for many of the top programs in the nation.
USA TODAY Sports recently released its recruiting expenses for Power Five public universities for the past six years, which included 13 of the 14 SEC member schools (Vanderbilt being the lone private school representative). Take a look below at where each of the other schools landed in comparison to their conference peers. Note that the sport saw dramatic decreases in expenditures during the COVID era, which is reflected in the six-year average.