When former Alabama football assistant Billy Napier took over as head coach at Florida in 2022, his first team picture with the Gators made headlines. Napier opted to have UF’s entire support staff in the photo, waking some fans up to how large those staffs had grown across college football.

For the Fiscal Year 2024, Napier’s Florida football program didn’t even spend the most on support staff among public SEC schools. The Gators weren’t even close, finishing ninth, while Georgia took the top spot.

The Bulldogs spent just over $8.1 million on support staff for FY 2024, according to financial reports submitted to the NCAA by SEC schools and obtained by AL.com via a series of open records requests. Vanderbilt was not included, due to its status as a private university, not subject to open records laws.

The NCAA financial reports are a bit unclear as to what constitutes support staff, mostly leaving it up to the schools to define for themselves. However, coach spending has its own category, so support staff pools will not include coaches.

Tennessee ran second to Kirby Smart and company, spending just under $8.1 million. Texas A&M at $7.9 million was the only other football program to shell out more than Alabama, which reported $7.6 million for the fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024, meaning it included parts of both Nick Saban and Kalen DeBoer’s tenures in Tuscaloosa.

The FY 2024 number was an increase from Alabama’s $6.8 million in football support staff spending for Fiscal Year 2023.

Ole Miss, with $7.3 million, was fifth among the league’s public schools, one spot behind UA. South Carolina spent just less than the Rebels in FY 2024, finishing sixth in the league.

Auburn was 10th in the league during FY 2024. The Tigers spent just under $6.3 million, just behind Florida’s $6.4 million.

AU’s football support staff spending did increase year-to-year. Auburn had spent $5.4 million in the category during FY 2023.

Just four SEC football programs spent less than $5 million on support staff during the fiscal year. Mississippi State dropped $4.3 million to run 12th in the league, making support staff one of the few revenue or spending categories where the Bulldogs weren’t last among the public schools.

Oklahoma spend just under $4.1 million, good for 13th, while Arkansas spent $4 million and sat just behind the Sooners. Kentucky spent the least in the league on support staff by a healthy margin, at just under $3 million.