| C-VILLE Online EXTRA: Expanding the recruiting base Q&A with Jon Oliver, executive associate athletics director |
In 2004, UVA tennis coach Brian Boland took a 48-hour flight to Chennai, India, to visit a tennis prospect. That prospect turned into the most accomplished tennis player in UVA history, Somdev Devvarman, who graduated this year after winning back-to-back NCAA singles championships.
“It’s a 25-hour flight that was delayed,” Boland told the Raleigh News & Observer in 2007. “[But] that’s one trip I’m glad I took.”
Part of the reason Boland could take that trip, it appears, is because of a dramatic increase in athletic recruiting spending on the part of UVA. Since 2002, the University’s spending on recruiting has gone up 80 percent, according to a report released August 1 by The Chronicle of Higher Education. That uptick correlates with the hiring of Craig Littlepage as athletic director, but it also is part of a trend across Division I schools.
 Somdev Devvarman came to UVA after tennis Head Coach Brian Boland flew to India—probably not a cheap ticket. |
UVA spent $1.2 million in 2007 on athletic recruiting, ranking it 15th among all Division I-A programs, and the second highest among ACC schools. The ACC has been a particularly fast riser with recruiting budgets in the last decade as it has tried to become more competitive in football. The University of Maryland spent $912,100 in 2007 compared to $242,000 in 1997, while Duke jumped 229 percent in that span to a budget of $1.2 million.
In some ways, UVA has seen a payoff for its spending, as measured by its placement in the Director’s Cup, which awards points for performance in all intercollegiate sports. The University has risen from No. 27 on that list in 2002 to No. 17 in 2007.
The biggest recruiting spender in the country is the University of Tennessee, which puts $2 million to getting athletic commitments. Still, the Chronicle points out that recruiting spending is a mere 1 to 3 percent of the athletic budgets of top schools. In 2007, UVA spent $51.6 million on its 25 intercollegiate athletic programs, putting its recruiting spending at a mere 2 percent of the overall budget.
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