ESPN: Recruiting a major yet vital expense
Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:47 am
Interesting article.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... ng-players
ATHENS, Ga. -- Take a glimpse at the average college football program's annual budget and one of the biggest line items will almost assuredly be recruiting.
At the University of Georgia -- which, according to an ESPN.com story last year, ranks among the sport's biggest recruiting spenders -- that line item accounted for $600,000 of the football program's $14,069,837 budget in the 2011-12 academic year.
But where does that money go? The only more costly budget items -- coach compensation, stadium expenses for home games, team travel and opponent guarantees -- are straightforward expenses. Recruiting, however, is a more nebulous spending category, and yet few elements in the sport are any more important in building and maintaining a competitive program.
"The kids are your lifeblood. You have to recruit them," said Georgia executive associate athletic director Frank Crumley, who is in charge of financial operations for the UGA Athletic Association. "I think you've got a staff that's been here and they've refined how they do it so it's not just haphazard. It was Rodney [Garner, who served as Georgia's recruiting coordinator for 14 years until taking a job at Auburn late last year] really focusing on it, and now we've got D.J. [director of on-campus recruiting Daryl Jones], where that's his job and he can map out the 12 months."
And, make no mistake, recruiting has become a 12-month endeavor. The planning and budgeting needs of a major college football program have outgrown the old method of asking an assistant coach to serve as the coordinator of all things recruiting in addition to his on-field responsibilities....
http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... ng-players
ATHENS, Ga. -- Take a glimpse at the average college football program's annual budget and one of the biggest line items will almost assuredly be recruiting.
At the University of Georgia -- which, according to an ESPN.com story last year, ranks among the sport's biggest recruiting spenders -- that line item accounted for $600,000 of the football program's $14,069,837 budget in the 2011-12 academic year.
But where does that money go? The only more costly budget items -- coach compensation, stadium expenses for home games, team travel and opponent guarantees -- are straightforward expenses. Recruiting, however, is a more nebulous spending category, and yet few elements in the sport are any more important in building and maintaining a competitive program.
"The kids are your lifeblood. You have to recruit them," said Georgia executive associate athletic director Frank Crumley, who is in charge of financial operations for the UGA Athletic Association. "I think you've got a staff that's been here and they've refined how they do it so it's not just haphazard. It was Rodney [Garner, who served as Georgia's recruiting coordinator for 14 years until taking a job at Auburn late last year] really focusing on it, and now we've got D.J. [director of on-campus recruiting Daryl Jones], where that's his job and he can map out the 12 months."
And, make no mistake, recruiting has become a 12-month endeavor. The planning and budgeting needs of a major college football program have outgrown the old method of asking an assistant coach to serve as the coordinator of all things recruiting in addition to his on-field responsibilities....