Louisville and Kentucky football not big recruiting spenders compared with other top teams

Editor's Note: Dollar amounts used for this story were reported by schools through the annual NCAA Financial Report process. In a small number of cases, the reported recruiting totals differed slightly from those supplied directly by the schools via separate requests, including totals from the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville that were used in previous coverage by the Courier Journal.

The University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville in recent years have each been among the nation’s top spenders to recruit players in men’s basketball.

One unsurprising fact meets another: Football recruiting totals for the two schools have ranked far lower.

Though UK and U of L have increased spending to recruit in football, each program still ranked in the bottom half of its conference from the 2013 fiscal year through 2018. That’s according to figures reported to the NCAA by public schools in Power Five conferences that were obtained by the Courier Journal and USA TODAY Network in partnership with Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

During the six-year period, during which Louisville wasn't a full ACC member for the entire time, the Cardinals' football program ranked last of the eight current public schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference in recruiting costs.

The Cardinals’ total of roughly $2.85 million spent for football recruiting was more than doubled by ACC leaders – and divisional rivals – Florida State ($6.39 million) and Clemson ($6.1 million) during that timeframe.

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First-year Louisville football Scott Satterfield believed much of the difference in costs between schools could be traced to the use of private planes for assistant coaches.

“What that does is save time. You’re able to hit a ton more kids,” Satterfield said. “But if you want to be able to compete at the same level as some of these other schools, you’ve got to be pretty close to what they’re doing, right? It’s going to be a little bit harder for you if you’re not going to be able to do that, if you’re not going to have the same funds.

"Not to say it can’t be done. It’s just going to be a lot harder.”

Kentucky’s football program ranked 10th of 13 public schools in the Southeastern Conference in recruiting costs during that six-year period, ahead of Ole Miss, South Carolina and Mississippi State. The Wildcats spent roughly $3.5 million compared with SEC – and national – leaders Georgia ($9.73 million), Alabama ($9.13 million) and Tennessee ($9 million).

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“There’s nobody in this league that’s interested in going backwards,” UK coach Mark Stoops said. “Everybody is constantly pushing and finding new opportunities.”

In terms of where Kentucky and Louisville each ranked nationally, football paled in comparison to men’s basketball.

From fiscal year 2013 through 2018, Kentucky's $3.45 million spent was second (to Indiana's $3.54 million) among all Power Five conference public schools in spending for men’s basketball recruiting. The Wildcats topped the list in 2016.

Louisville was fourth overall at $2.8 million (Kansas was third at $2.94 million) during those six years. The Cards under Rick Pitino led the nation's Power Five public schools in 2013 spending, but their relative costs have gradually dropped since then. Louisville went from second nationally in 2014 to 21st in 2018.

Part of that drop has likely been because of how travel costs are accounted for under athletic director Vince Tyra.

While private flights are accounted for in UK’s reported totals, for instance, Louisville is using “restricted accounts for each sport,” Tyra said. Basically, donations for a specific sport for any reason are added to a restricted account that is subject to approval from the university before being spent.

“It is trying to figure out with Scott Satterfield and his group, what is it that you need?” Tyra said. “How should we spend our money – in all facets, on how we feed the team and how we recruit the next team to come in? We’re looking at every aspect of it, salaries, bonuses, everything that goes into the whole program.”

Upon exiting Appalachian State to take over the program at Louisville in December, Satterfield said he was able to use private planes for recruiting travel to help build a depleted 2019 signing class, though his assistant coaches largely flew commercially unless they were with him.

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“At App, I would either drive or go commercial,” Satterfield said. “Mostly drive, because our airport was two hours away. That’s probably been the biggest difference. Other than that, it’s very similar, I think. You’ve just got to go out and find the players and whatever it takes you’ve got to do it.”

Appalachian State averaged $247,167 in football recruiting from fiscal year 2013 through 2018 compared with Louisville's $474,303.

Yet Louisville’s spending on football recruiting from 2013 to 2018 ranked 46th out of 52 public Power Five programs nationally. Kentucky was 33rd (average of $584,942).

These totals don't reflect that they were during a period where Kentucky and Louisville each ramped up its off-the-field investment in football facility upgrades.

In Lexington, that meant the announcement in November 2013 of a $110 million stadium renovation – with the cost subsequently being listed as $126 million – and soon after the start of a new $45 million practice facility.

Similarly, Louisville’s football program also recently renovated its stadium at a price tag of roughly $63 million, a project that also included upgraded facilities for the team.

“It’s either you do or you die, to a point,” said Rich Brooks, UK’s head coach from 2003-09. “For a lot of years, Kentucky football scraped by on minimal budgets, I think. And that has changed, and it had to change if they wanted to truly be competitive in SEC football.

“… Everything has gone above and beyond in the arms race, and Kentucky under Coach (Mark) Stoops finally got the new stadium renovation. They got the new complex, new practice fields. So they raised the bar exponentially compared to what it was when I was there, and I think you’ve seen that pay off in the recruiting and in the results on the field.”

USA TODAY's Steve Berkowitz contributed to this report.

Gentry Estes: 502-582-4205; gestes@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @Gentry_Estes. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/gentrye.