NCAA Basketball Recruiting: The Budget and Its Impact

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Recruiting budgets cover expenses such as housing, meals, telephone use, transportation, and entertainment for recruits and staff members engaged in recruiting.1

With recruiting being the bloodline of college basketball, there is much to be said about the relationship between how much schools spend finding players and the frequency at which those same schools win. In the business world, it is frequently stated that it “takes money to make money”. Even though the NCAA attempts to promote equality amongst all member institutions, any of the premier programs in the country have an abundance of resources to use in order to gain a competitive advantage over those less privileged. Below is a list of the top spenders in recruiting from 2008-2013, their tournament appearances, record, and deepest run into the tournament.

Top 5 Budgets for Recruiting Classes of 2009-2010 to 2013-2014 Seasons

School	Budget	NCAA Tournaments	Overall Record	Best Finish
Kansas	$2.16 Million	5	156-29	Runner-Up
Louisville	$2.02 Million	5	141-50	National Champion
Kentucky	$1.98 Million	5	152-37	National Champion
Auburn	$1.63 Million	0	78-112	N/A
Florida	$1.27 Million	5	141-43	Final Four

Between 2008 and 2013, Auburn University was the fourth-largest spender in recruiting amongst public universities (private universities do not disclose certain financial information). The astounding five-year total of about $1.6 million is a surprise because they have yet to make the NCAA tournament field since 2003. Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs authorized the 2010 recruiting budget to be increased from $203,000 to $465,000 at the request of Coach Tony Barbee, whom they hired that year. Jacobs released a statement about the lack of success saying, “It was a bad return on investment…It didn't work out...So I fired him."2

If there was ever a question of the importance of recruiting in the game of college basketball, the proof is in the numbers. A deep recruiting budget normally brings more wins, lucrative contract extensions, and even NBA head coaching jobs (Florida Head Coach Billy Donovan was recently named to the same position of the Oklahoma City Thunder). If the wins do not justify the spending, a coach finds himself out the door in a hurry.

References

1Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) Statistics. (2014). Retrieved June 29, 2015, from https://www.dawson.edu/students/eada/

2Brady, E., Kelley, J., & Berkowitz, S. (2015, March 18). Teams that spend on recruiting make tourney, except Auburn. Retrieved June 29, 2015, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2015/03/17/mens-basketball-recruiting-kansas-kentucky-louisville/24911927/