From fiscal years 2016 through 2018, Georgia’s football recruiting expenditures totaled just over $1.5 million more than any other of the nation’s 52 public Power Five universities, according to figures reported to the NCAA and obtained by the Courier Journal and USA TODAY Network in partnership with Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
At Georgia, such spending has marked a dramatic upturn that has accompanied Smart’s arrival after the 2015 season.
From 2016 to 2018, Georgia exceeded its budgeted amounts for football recruiting by millions to collectively spend more than $7 million, well ahead of No. 2 Alabama (roughly $5.56 million) and No. 3 Tennessee ($5 million).
Georgia’s football recruiting expenditures have more than quadrupled in recent years, going from $581,531 in the 2013 fiscal year, when Mark Richt was head coach, to roughly $2.63 million in 2018 (not adjusting for inflation).