College athletics has increasingly become a revenue-generating machine for universities. The landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years, especially with the introduction of name, image, and likeness deals, athletic departments adopting professional structures and the rise of the transfer portals.
The Atlantic Coast Conference earned more than $7 million in the 2023-2024 academic year, according to its latest tax documents. This shift in revenue generation has changed how coaches and athletic departments recruit student-athletes to compete for their institution.
Recruiting is an important aspect of college athletics because it directly shapes a program's talent, competitiveness and long-term success, according to former sportswriter at the Post-Standard and professor at Falk College at Syracuse University Rick Burton. Expenses skyrocketed from 2019 to 2023, except for the dip in 2020 because of COVID-19.Schools in the ACC spend a significant amount of money on recruiting expenses in order to obtain the best athlete.
Recruiting expenses include costs that go towards recruiting activities, such as expenses for lodging, meals, telephone use and transportation for both recruits and coaches involved in the process.
The NCAA Transfer Portal, launched on Oct. 15, 2018, has had a significant impact on recruiting in collegiate sports.
Before the transfer portal was popular, athletes who transferred were penalized by having to sit out of competition, Burton said. Coaches only had to recruit high school athletes, so not much money went into recruiting players from other colleges.
Now, coaches and athletes rely on the transfer portal, especially football players.
“Football drives the revenue bus in college sports,” Burton said. “It generates the most money.”
Therefore, a lot of money is going to go into football recruiting and men's overall recruiting expenses. Schools need to be prepared to go after any athlete, either in high school or already in college, because they have “unrestricted free agency”, Burton said.
Participation gaps and gender inequities have limited women’s involvement in college athletics, according to the NCAA, and the organization is working towards ending those inequalities. However, when looking at recruiting expenses within the ACC schools, athletic departments spend a larger percentage on men’s recruiting than on women’s.
In 2023, the University of North Carolina spent 28.1% of their total recruiting expenses on women’s sports and 71.9% on men’s sports. Nicknamed the “University of National Champions”, the Tar Heels brought home team national championships in women’s field hockey and women’s tennis and individual titles in women’s diving and men’s wrestling. Despite their women’s teams being far more successful in 2023, they spent significantly less on recruiting, showing the disparities in women’s collegiate sports.
“There's no question that athletic directors reward performance, but they also have to be aware of balancing their budgets,” Burton said. “If they overspend on non-revenue sports, they’re withholding funds that could have been put into football or basketball, which are much more likely to generate revenue to balance your budget.”
Schools like Duke and North Carolina want to win as many national championships as possible.
“They don't want to underinvest in non-revenue or Olympic sports, but relative to balancing their budget and keeping their alumni happy, they really need to make sure that they don't take their eye off of football and the two basketballs,” Burton said.
The ACC spends a significant amount on recruiting, but not as much as other Power 4 conferences, such as the Southeastern Conference. SEC schools can generate revenue from their large enrollments, which helps fund recruiting, Burton said.
Large public universities in the SEC, such as the University of Alabama, the University of Georgia, and LSU, generate more revenue for their athletic programs solely from their student body. Burton said those schools often make students pay an athletic fee, which generates millions of dollars in revenue for the schools.
Small private ACC schools with lower student populations and higher tuition, like Wake Forest and Boston College, do not charge students an athletic fee, which limits revenue for their athletic programs. Therefore, the undergraduate enrollment size did not correlate with higher spending on recruiting expenses in the ACC. Duke University, one of the smallest schools in the ACC with 6,789 total undergraduates, spent more on recruiting expenses than Florida State, whose total undergraduate size was 30,065 in 2021.
At the end of each year, athletic department rankings are determined based on which department had the most successful year.
When evaluating these rankings, ESPN sportswriter and Syracuse University Professor Ryan O’Hanlon said it is essential to consider rankings that account for both men’s and women’s sports, rather than focusing solely on revenue-generating teams such as football and men’s basketball. The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics generates a ranking each year based on competitive success across many sports, including men’s and women’s, ensuring the ranking reflects overall department strength.
Within the ACC, large recruiting expenses did not correspond with better rankings, suggesting that increased spending does not translate into higher rankings.
As the college landscape evolves after House v. NCAA, the world of recruiting will continue to change.