Conferece Recruitment Expense Series: Sun Belt Conference

Last Updated on January 20, 2012

Next up in BusinessofCollgeSports.com’s Conference Recruitment Expense Series is the Sun Belt Conference.

Yesterday, recruitment expense data from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and Conference USA was posted.  Today, data for the MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12, SEC, Sun Belt, and WAC will be posted.  On Monday, a spreadsheet listing the top-50 spenders in terms of recruiting will be listed, sorted by total recruitment expense budget, amount spent per team on average and amount spent per player on average.

The data was obtained from the Department of Education.  Although this data is not perfect, it is the only data available for both public and private institutions.  Furthermore, the data provided is for the 2010-11 school year.  Additionally, it should be noted that the “Amount Per Player” column was calculated using the total amount of student-athletes at a given school.  The Department of Education data does not disclose how many student-athletes a school recruited in a given year.  Thus, using the data alone, it is impossible to calculate how much it cost a school to recruit a specific class.

Schools	Men’s Sports Recruitment Expenses	Average Per Team	Average Per Player
Arkansas State	$204,772.00	$40,954.40	$965.91
Arkansas – Little Rock	$134,606.00	$33,651.50	$1,547.20
Denver	$230,427.00	$28,803.38	$1,371.59
Florida Atlantic	$195,797.00	$24,474.63	$619.61
Florida International	$331,056.00	$66,211.20	$1,622.82
Louisiana – Lafayette	$255,716.00	$42,619.33	$1,111.81
Louisiana – Monroe	$76,809.00	$15,361.80	$424.36
Middle Tennessee	$288,982.00	$48,163.67	$1,102.98
North Texas	$142,082.00	$35,520.50	$835.78
South Alabama	$308,886.00	$38,610.75	$1,250.55
Troy	$141,298.00	$20,185.43	$554.11
Western Kentucky	$349,431.00	$49,918.71	$1,474.39

 

Schools	Women’s Sports Recruiting Expenses	Average Per Team	Average Per Player
Arkansas State	$104,456.00	$14,922.29	$941.05
Arkansas – Little Rock	$99,490.00	$14,212.86	$1,047.26
Denver	$220,978.00	$24,553.11	$1,567.22
Florida Atlantic	$64,437.00	$8,054.63	$379.04
Florida International	$89,817.00	$11,227.13	$615.18
Louisiana – Lafayette	$84,788.00	$14,131.33	$694.98
Louisiana – Monroe	$50,469.00	$7,209.86	$442.71
Middle Tennessee	$85,986.00	$12,283.71	$661.43
North Texas	$88,848.00	$11,106.00	$499.15
South Alabama	$130,728.00	$14,525.33	$1,107.86
Troy	$95,288.00	$11,911.00	$685.53
Western Kentucky	$138,016.00	$17,252.00	$908.00

The Sun Belt Conference school which spent the most on recruiting for its men’s sports teams in 2010-11 was Florida International.  Florida International spent $331,056.00 on recruiting for its men’s sports teams in 2010-11.  It may be worth noting Florida International hired a big-name men’s basketball coach in Isiah Thomas in April 2009.

The Sun Belt Conference school which spent the most on recruiting for its women’s sports teams in 2010-11 was the University of Denver.  Denver expended $220,978.00 to recruit student-athletes for its women’s sports programs in 2010-11.