Georgia Dominates P5 Recruiting Spending, Wisconsin Spends The Least

Georgia's football recruiting spending over the past several years is nothing short of staggering.

USA Today compiled all the recruiting spending information since 2017 for the public P5 programs, and the data is something fellow college football nerds will love.

The main takeaway is that Georgia's gap in recruiting spending between the rest of the country is huge.

Georgia leads recruiting spending since 2017. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Georgia crushes recruiting spending.

Georgia averages spending more than $2.75 million a year on recruiting, and it seems to be working because the Bulldogs are coming off two straight national titles. Last season, the Bulldogs dropped $4.5 million on recruiting.

In case there was any doubt whether you have to spend money to make money, Kirby Smart's incredible success should make it clear that's very much the case in life.

Georgia has won back-to-back national titles. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

The top three programs are also all in the SEC. Alabama is second at $1.9 million annually and Tennessee at $1.788 million annually. A total of 13 programs have averaged at least $1 million on recruiting spending since 2017.

Of the top 13, six are in the SEC.

Wisconsin doesn't open the wallet to land recruits.

On the inverse of the spending scale, the team with the lowest recruiting spending average over the past six years might shock a lot of people: the Wisconsin Badgers. Under Paul Chryst's leadership, the Badgers averaged just over $392,000 a year on recruiting over the past six years. In 2021, Wisconsin spent just $93,517 on recruiting. That's simply not going to get the job done, and a lack of elite recruiting definitely didn't help Paul Chryst save his job.

During that time window, the Badgers went 51-23, despite spending the least amount of money among the public P5s since 2017.

All things considered, that's pretty impressive. Just not impressive enough to keep Paul Chryst as the man in charge. That's what happens when you don't stock the cabinet with enough talent and keep winning. With Luke Fickell now in charge, Wisconsin fans can expect the recruiting budget to skyrocket.

Wisconsin's recruiting spending was the lowest among public P5 programs from 2017-2022. (Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images)

Money is the name of the game in college football. You either spend it and win or you don't and likely don't dominate. The numbers are all the proof you need. Now, it's probably time for some teams to start cranking up the budgets to score top recruits.