Which SEC schools spend the most on basketball? How much do they spend on recruiting?
SEC basketball programs spent more than $163 million in total operating expenses in the 2021-22 fiscal year, the latest for which data is available, an increase of 40% over the previous year according to data obtained by the USA TODAY Sports Network in partnership with the Knight-Newhouse Data project at Syracuse University.
With the SEC Tournament taking place this week in Nashville, the USAT Sports Network took a look at some key financial numbers surrounding league men's basketball programs.
Kentucky outspent Tennessee, the next-highest spender, by nearly $7.5 million with more than $22.1 million in operating expenses. Ten SEC schools tallied more than $10 million in operating expenses, while only four spent that amount or more the year before. Kentucky's spending in 2021-22 was up almost $5 million over the previous fiscal year.
Data for Vanderbilt, the league's only private school, was not available as it is not subject to open-records disclosure.
Varying athletics department and/or university accounting systems can result in a lack of uniformity in how these numbers are compiled for the reports to the NCAA, from which this data was obtained. Schools may, for instance, allocate expenses differently for spending related to multi-purpose facilities that are used for basketball and other sports.
A year-over-year comparison in SEC basketball spending, however, is misleading because the 2020-21 fiscal year included cost restrictions and lower revenues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rising inflation also impacts operating expenses.
Adjusted for inflation using the federal government's Consumer Price Index, league schools spent more than $5 million less collectively than they did in the 2018-19 fiscal year, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic impacted athletics revenue and spending. The 13 schools tallied about $145.4 million in total operating expenses in that year, which adjusts to $168.2 million in current dollars using the CPI inflation calculator.
In current dollars, Alabama and Florida were the only schools for which data was available that spent less than they did in the 2018-19 fiscal year. Alabama spent nearly $16 million, down to $10.9 million in the most recent year. Florida's real-dollar spending went down from $9.7 million to $8.8 million.
Kentucky's current-dollar spending was up more than $3 million from 2018-19, with Georgia's total operating expenses for basketball nearly doubling from $7.8 million to $14.1 million. Of that amount, $4.2 million was paid in severance related to the firing of Tom Crean in March 2022.
Tennessee, second to Kentucky in spending in the most recent fiscal year, spent $14.7 million on basketball operating expenses. Georgia, Auburn, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Arkansas, South Carolina, Alabama and Missouri all incurred more than $10 million in spending. Only LSU, Florida and Mississippi State reported less than $10 million in spending.
On average, schools spent more than $12.5 million on basketball.
Total operating expenses
Here is a school-by-school look at SEC total operating expenses for basketball in 2021-22:
Kentucky: $22,116,208
Tennessee: $14,659,954
Georgia: $14,127,220
Auburn: $13,813,576
Texas A&M: $13,524,047
Ole Miss: $13,026,006
Arkansas: $11,802,170
South Carolina: $11,792,522
Alabama: $10,900,723
Missouri: $10,286,792
LSU: $9,849,325
Florida: $8,815,741
Mississippi State: $8,384,574
Recruiting expenses
SEC schools spent collectively nearly $6 million more on basketball recruiting in 2021-22 than they did the previous year, an increase owing to recruiting restrictions due to COVID-19 that were still in place when in-person visits and other normal recruiting activities were not allowed.
In the 2020-21 fiscal year, the 13 schools for which data was available spent nearly $800,000 collectively. Last fiscal year, they combined to spend nearly $6.8 million.
As with total operating expenses, accounting may not be uniform from school to school. Some schools, for instance, may use university-owned airplanes for recruiting trips and account for use of that asset differently.
Kentucky and Texas A&M were the only two schools to incur more than $1 million in recruiting expenses, with Kentucky spending about $8,000 more at $1,167,817. No other school spent as much as $700,000. South Carolina spent the least at $182,452.
Here is a look at basketball recruiting expenses by SEC schools in 2021-22:
Kentucky: $1,167,817
Texas A&M: $1,059,602
LSU: $694,071
Alabama: $613,780
Georgia: $515,155
Ole Miss: $487,407
Tennessee: $445,145
Auburn: $402,941
Florida: $329,395
Missouri: $329,224
Mississippi State: $286,447
Arkansas: $255,400
South Carolina: $182,452
Contributing: Steve Berkowitz, USA TODAY
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How much each SEC program spends on basketball, recruiting
