The Tennessee Volunteers are in the process of rebuilding their football and men’s basketball programs, and they’re not sparing any expense.
The Vols spent nearly $2.3 million recruiting athletes for all men’s and women’s sports, and were one of only three schools to spend more than $2 million.
Tennessee was one of six schools from the SEC that was among the top 10 in recruiting expenses. Eleven of the SEC’s 14 schools were among the top 50.
Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Arkansas all spent hefty sums trying to attract the nation’s most talented prep athletes.
Ten of the Big Ten’s 12 schools were among the top, as were nine from the ACC, eight from the Pac-12 and seven from the Big 12.
The lone program outside of the six automatic qualifying BCS conferences that had the highest recruiting expense was the University of Memphis.
Despite having one of the worst college football programs in the nation, Memphis spent nearly $1 million on recruiting.
Below is a list of the top 10 school’s that spent the most on recruiting during the 2010-11 fiscal year.
To see a list of the top 100 programs recruiting expenses, visit the BusinessofCollegeSports.com.
| 2010-11 College Athletics Recruiting Expenses | ||||||||||||||
| School | Conference | Men’s | Women’s | Total | ||||||||||
| Tennessee | SEC | $1,878,771 | $417,252 | $2,296,023 | ||||||||||
| Auburn | SEC | $1,530,917 | $586,728 | $2,117,645 | ||||||||||
| Notre Dame | Ind | $1,612,608 | $457,708 | $2,070,316 | ||||||||||
| Alabama | SEC | $1,339,537 | $354,665 | $1,694,202 | ||||||||||
| Georgia | SEC | $1,039,220 | $501,523 | $1,540,743 | ||||||||||
| Florida | SEC | $1,065,716 | $436,183 | $1,501,899 | ||||||||||
| Georgia Tech | ACC | $1,173,904 | $315,695 | $1,489,599 | ||||||||||
| Arkansas | SEC | $1,060,500 | $420,057 | $1,480,557 | ||||||||||
| Michigan | Big 10 | $1,039,948 | $440,409 | $1,480,357 | ||||||||||
| Texas | Big 12 | $989,370 | $481,019 | $1,470,389 | ||||||||||
