Report: Auburn ranks 9th in SEC in football recruiting spending

Auburn spends the ninth-most in the Southeastern Conference on football recruiting, according to an analysis of college football recruiting budgets and spending by AthleticDirectorU.com.

Gus Malzahn's program ranks 22nd nationally, spending $955,898 during the 2019 fiscal year.

According to the report, the NCAA Financial Report forms, filled out annually by athletic programs, define recruiting spending as “input transportation, lodging and meals for prospective student-athletes and institutional personnel on official and unofficial visits, telephone call charges, postage and such. Include value of use of institution’s own vehicles or airplanes as well as in-kind value of loaned or contributed transportation.”

In comparison with a Stadium.com report of football recruiting spending, Auburn spent $125,938 less this past year than it did in the 2018 fiscal year.

SEC football programs spent the most on recruiting of any Power Five conference, with an average of $1,532,323.54 per school. That's nearly $400,000 spent per conference member more than the No. 2 conference — the ACC.

Six of top 10 recruiting spenders in the country and four of the top five hail from the SEC, according to the report.

The only SEC schools not in the top 20 are Auburn, South Carolina, Missouri, Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Vanderbilt is a private institution and is not required to reveal its athletic spending to the public.

The analysis also broke down the top spenders over the last 15 fiscal years. Auburn had a stranglehold on the No. 1 spot in the country in 2012, spending $1,378,831 on football recruiting. That was $396,164 more than Alabama, then ranked second in the nation in spending.

The numbers have inflated drastically since then, as the current top spender, Georgia, reported $3,676,858 in recruiting expenditures in 2019.

Auburn's 2020 class ranked 10th nationally and seventh in the SEC.

1. Georgia — $3,676,858

2. Alabama — $2,663,467

3. Tennessee — $2,247,289

4. Arkansas — $1,931,026

5. Texas A&M — $1,673,204

6. LSU — $1,607,148

7. Florida — $1,271,821

8. Kentucky — $1,035,217

9. Auburn — $955,898

10. South Carolina — $931,666

11. Missouri — $852,024

12. Ole Miss — $669,364

13. Mississippi State — $435,224

Vanderbilt, a private institution, is not required to reveal its athletic spending to the public