Tennessee led the SEC in football recruiting spending during Fiscal Year 2024. The Volunteers spent $5.4 million in the category, according to financial reports submitted to the NCAA by the league’s 15 public schools, obtained by AL.com via a series of open records requests.

Alabama came in just below Tennessee. The Crimson Tide spent $5.3 million on football recruiting during FY 2024, a large jump from the previous fiscal year, when UA shelled out $2.9 million in the category.

Vanderbilt is a private school and is not subject to open records requests. For that reason, the Commodores were not included in the rankings.

Fiscal years do not overlap perfectly with recruiting class calendars. FY 2024 ran from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024, while the early signing period for each class falls in December.

Football recruiting spending jumped throughout the league. In FY 2023, only three schools spent more than $3 million, a number that jumped to seven for FY 2024.

After Georgia led the league by spending $5.3 million in FY 2023, the Bulldogs dropped to fourth, reporting just over $4 million in football recruiting expenses this past fiscal year. Texas A&M ranked second in FY 2023, at $4 million, and moved down to third at $4.1 million for FY 2024.

Auburn’s football recruiting spending was one of the few in the league to go down for FY 2024, when the Tigers dedicated just under $1.5 million to the efforts. AU had spent just under $1.6 million for FY 2023.

Auburn remained steady at 12th in spending across the league’s public schools.

Nine schools spent more than $2 million on football recruiting in FY 2024, up from seven the previous year. Nine of the 15 public SEC schools saw their budgets increase, with Texas A&M, Georgia, Texas, Florida, Auburn and Arkansas the exceptions.

Tennessee took the biggest jump, which vaulted the Volunteers to first in recruiting spending. UT had spent $2.6 million in FY 2023, ranking sixth among SEC public schools.

Just as in many spending categories, Mississippi State ranked dead last in the league during FY 2024. However, its football recruiting spending went up, from $774,938 to $990,390.

The Bulldogs remain the only public SEC school to spend less than $1 million on football recruiting. The next lowest on the list was Kentucky, which spent $1.2 million in the category.