Home›Spending
Filed athletics finances

Who spends the most on recruiting

Every figure is read from the school's own NCAA financial report — the annual filing each Division I athletics department submits to the NCAA. Ranked by reported dollars, not by results.
118Schools ranked
FY2021Fiscal year
$18.50MCombined recruiting
831Reports parsed

Transportation, lodging, and meals for prospective student-athletes and for staff on official and unofficial visits.

Rank / schoolReported recruitingChange
01

Texas

$1.27M · $1,266,974

no prior year
02

Oregon State

$1.10M · $1,104,642

−3% YoY
03

Texas A&M

$1.01M · $1,008,816

no prior year
04

Georgia

$941K · $940,535

−75% YoY
05

Michigan

$822K · $822,051

no prior year
06

Oklahoma

$634K · $633,688

−72% YoY
07

UNLV

$631K · $630,961

no prior year
08

Arizona

$590K · $589,862

no prior year
09

Ohio State

$579K · $578,953

no prior year
10

North Carolina

$465K · $465,072

no prior year
11

Maryland

$422K · $421,739

no prior year
12

Georgia Tech

$411K · $410,880

no prior year
13

Nebraska

$400K · $400,482

no prior year
14

South Carolina

$373K · $372,977

no prior year
15

Kentucky

$362K · $362,141

no prior year
16

Oklahoma State

$335K · $335,213

no prior year
17

Missouri

$314K · $314,262

−79% YoY
18

Clemson

$297K · $297,097

no prior year
19

Purdue

$297K · $296,506

no prior year
20

UConn

$289K · $289,189

no prior year
21

Virginia

$282K · $281,864

no prior year
22

UCLA

$263K · $263,312

no prior year
23

East Carolina

$240K · $239,964

no prior year
24

Nevada

$231K · $230,954

no prior year
25

Illinois State University

$230K · $229,521

no prior year
26

NC State

$225K · $225,333

no prior year
27

Buffalo

$194K · $194,198

−48% YoY
28

Texas State

$193K · $193,369

−51% YoY
29

Stephen F. Austin State University

$184K · $183,869

no prior year
30

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

$179K · $179,055

no prior year
31

Indiana

$170K · $169,761

no prior year
32

Rhode Island

$156K · $155,892

no prior year
33

Central Michigan

$147K · $146,742

−74% YoY
34

Southern Miss

$140K · $140,106

−75% YoY
35

Charlotte

$138K · $138,385

no prior year
36

Boise State

$134K · $134,040

−76% YoY
37

Fresno State

$129K · $128,716

no prior year
38

Western Michigan

$120K · $120,198

−63% YoY
39

Utah State

$115K · $114,898

no prior year
40

Middle Tennessee

$111K · $111,269

no prior year
41

Angelo State

$105K · $105,379

no prior year
42

Towson

$105K · $104,880

no prior year
43

Mississippi State

$102K · $102,430

no prior year
44

Eastern Michigan

$100K · $99,654

no prior year
45

North Alabama

$93K · $92,674

no prior year
46

Montana State

$91K · $91,142

no prior year
47

University of Massachusetts Lowell

$90K · $89,760

no prior year
48

University of Nebraska Omaha

$89K · $89,450

no prior year
49

Stony Brook

$83K · $82,777

no prior year
50

UC Santa Barbara

$82K · $82,145

no prior year
51

University of California, Davis

$78K · $78,225

no prior year
52

South Dakota

$77K · $77,244

no prior year
53

Michigan Tech

$76K · $76,236

no prior year
54

UAlbany

$74K · $74,288

no prior year
55

University of Central Missouri

$74K · $73,500

no prior year
56

The University of North Carolina at

$72K · $71,909

no prior year
57

George Mason University

$71K · $71,088

no prior year
58

Nebraska-Kearney

$70K · $70,352

no prior year
59

Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

$62K · $62,497

no prior year
60

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

$62K · $62,139

no prior year
61

Fort Lewis College

$60K · $60,082

no prior year
62

North Dakota State

$59K · $59,467

no prior year
63

Florida Atlantic

$59K · $58,695

−88% YoY
64

Midwestern State University

$59K · $58,637

no prior year
65

University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

$57K · $56,510

no prior year
66

VCU

$55K · $54,839

no prior year
67

Indiana State

$54K · $54,282

no prior year
68

California State University, Bakersfield

$52K · $52,298

no prior year
69

University of North Carolina Wilmington

$51K · $51,202

no prior year
70

University of Hawaii, Manoa

$51K · $50,563

no prior year
71

North Carolina A&T State University

$50K · $50,495

−79% YoY
72

Eastern Kentucky

$48K · $48,152

no prior year
73

University of West Florida

$46K · $45,553

no prior year
74

Sam Houston

$42K · $41,720

no prior year
75

Georgia State

$41K · $41,175

−83% YoY
76

Kennesaw State

$41K · $40,888

−81% YoY
77

East Tennessee State

$39K · $38,962

no prior year
78

Emporia State University

$39K · $38,901

no prior year
79

University of Northern Iowa

$38K · $38,151

no prior year
80

Black Hills State University

$37K · $37,414

no prior year
81

North Carolina Central

$36K · $35,519

no prior year
82

Weber State University

$35K · $35,196

no prior year
83

California State University, Fullerton

$33K · $33,116

no prior year
84

Eastern New Mexico University

$32K · $32,487

no prior year
85

Morehead State

$31K · $31,381

no prior year
86

New Mexico State

$31K · $30,795

−92% YoY
87

San José State

$29K · $28,826

no prior year
88

Maine

$29K · $28,677

no prior year
89

Montana

$28K · $28,416

no prior year
90

NJIT

$28K · $28,156

no prior year
91

University of Minnesota, Crookston

$28K · $28,080

no prior year
92

Central Washington

$27K · $27,462

no prior year
93

Portland State University

$25K · $24,913

no prior year
94

Montana State University Billings

$24K · $23,765

no prior year
95

Idaho

$23K · $23,170

no prior year
96

Oakland

$22K · $21,942

no prior year
97

University of Missouri-Kansas City

$22K · $21,687

no prior year
98

Florida Gulf Coast University

$20K · $20,086

−91% YoY
99

Southeastern Oklahoma State

$19K · $18,887

no prior year
100

Ball State

$19K · $18,716

no prior year
101

New Mexico

$18K · $18,473

no prior year
102

Idaho State

$18K · $18,236

−89% YoY
103

California State University, Northridge

$18K · $18,081

no prior year
104

Western Carolina

$18K · $17,575

no prior year
105

Cameron University

$16K · $16,148

no prior year
106

Austin Peay State University

$16K · $15,765

no prior year
107

Eastern Washington

$15K · $15,087

no prior year
108

Florida International

$12K · $11,869

no prior year
109

South Carolina State University

$11K · $11,441

no prior year
110

University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

$10K · $10,162

no prior year
111

South Dakota State

$10K · $9,632

no prior year
112

University of Missouri–St. Louis

$9K · $8,513

no prior year
113

Albany State University (Georgia)

$8K · $8,069

no prior year
114

West Liberty University

$8K · $7,711

no prior year
115

UNC Asheville

$8K · $7,601

no prior year
116

University of North Georgia

$6K · $6,220

no prior year
117

Georgia College

$2K · $2,135

no prior year
118

University of Maryland Eastern Shore

$0 · $0

no prior year
How to read these rankings

These figures come from filed NCAA financial reports collected in our document corpus and parsed from the report text. 831 reports parsed cleanly; 56 could not be read and are absent from these rankings, so a school missing from a year has not necessarily reported nothing.

Football and basketball views come from the report's per-sport allocation tables. They cover recruiting and team travel, not aviation alone: commercial airfare, buses, hotels, meals, and other eligible costs share the same lines. A school can also leave some expenses unallocated.

Private universities have no public-disclosure obligation and generally do not appear. Fiscal years are not uniform — most close June 30, but some schools close on a different date, so a single “FY” column compares slightly different periods. Schools also categorize inconsistently between reports, so treat cross-school gaps of a few percent as noise rather than signal.