Nov 16, 2024; College Station, Texas, USA; A detail view of the SEC logo on a chain marker during the game between the Texas A&M Aggies and the New Mexico State Aggies at Kyle Field. Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

This Surprising Program Tops List of SEC Football Recruiting Spenders

Originally posted on NIL on SI | By Troy Brock | Last updated May 21, 2025 2:04 PM ET

For the SEC, "It just means more" is a testament to how hard their student-athletes perform on the field. But in the era of Name, Image and Likeness, "It just means more" means that it costs a bit more on the recruiting front.

The SEC has been no stranger to spending big in recruiting.

It has become a growing trend throughout the collegiate athletics landscape, and that does not ring more true for any sport other than college football.

The top athletes in the sport bring in multi-million dollar NIL deals, and some even make more while they are in college than they do on their first contract with the NFL.

A recent article from AL.com has reported on the spending from each public university in the conference on football recruiting for fiscal year of 2024, running from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024.

The leader of the pack was surprising, to say the least.

Tennessee Volunteers Led SEC In Football Recruitment Spending

With the success the Tennessee Volunteers have experienced under head coach Josh Heupel, the program going all in on recruiting and being willing to dole out the big bucks is no surprise.

What is surprising, however, is that they did so in much larger fashion than the Alabama Crimson Tide or the Georgia Bulldogs.

For fiscal year of 2024, the Volunteers spent $5,378,984 on just football recruiting. The Crimson Tide finished second with $5,273,716 and the Bulldogs came in at fourth with $4,087,503 behind the Texas A&M Aggies.

For Alabama, it represents a large jump in spending from just $2.9 million in the previous fiscal year, stemming from the change in leadership from former head coach Nick Saban to current head coach Kalen DeBoer.

Saban is staunchly against spending big through NIL and on recruiting, while DeBoer has no qualms about it.

Tennessee's jump was even larger than that of the Crimson Tide's.

The Volunteers, who may need to rethink their team name, spent just $2.6 million in fiscal year 2023, which ranked seventh among the public universities in the SEC.

The SEC is working hard to get back to the top of the mountain after the Big Ten has laid claim to the last two National Championships. It will be interesting to see how many more schools cross the $5 million threshold once the numbers for fiscal year 2025 are available.