Arch Manning, the crown-jewel prospect of the 2023 recruitment class and prodigal nephew of Peyton and Eli, is headed to Austin to play for the Texas Longhorns next fall.
Manning, who just began his senior year at Isidore Newman in New Orleans, chose the Longhorns over scholarship offers from Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Florida, LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Notre Dame, and Miami.
The five-star quarterback visited Austin along with eight other highly-ranked prospects this past June, and UT racked up an extravagant $280,000 bill hosting the recruits for just one weekend, according to documents obtained by The Athletic.
Among the most luxurious elements of the June 17-19 official visit to Austin by Manning and the eight other recruits were; a full spread in their rooms at the Four Seasons Austin, a photo shoot at DKR Texas Memorial Stadium, a trip to Top Golf, multiple lavish meals, breakfast at the 5,331 square foot home of Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian, and even a late-night cruise around Lake Lady Bird.
The expensive visit did result in four of the recruits committing to play for the Longhorns, including Manning, who committed four days after the recruiting trip, and his high school teammate, three-star tight end Will Randle, who committed after the visit on June 19.
Texas spent even more the following weekend, running up nearly $350,000 in expenses the weekend of June 24 when 14 recruits visited the campus. That visit proved successful as 12 of the players from that group have since committed to the Longhorns.
The $630,000 total over back-to-back weekend visits shows how much Texas has increased its investment in recruiting in recent years.
NCAA financial reports show that Texas spent $1,275,368 on recruiting for the 2019 fiscal year. That was the 13th most spent recruiting that year, led by Georgia of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) at $3,676,858.
Georgia, the reigning college football national champion, then spent $2.7 million on recruiting in 2020.
Another SEC school, Florida, significantly increased its football spending this year, by $4.72 million, with $700,000 added to the recruiting budget, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
That represents a 55% increase that gave Florida’s new head coach Billy Napier close to a $2 million budget for recruiting, not including Napier’s access to two private jets, which have a budget of $839,000.
After a decade of failing to compete for national championships but fresh off giving perennial SEC powerhouse Alabama a scare, the Longhorns clearly are willing to pay whatever it takes to consistently compete at the same level as its future conference rivals.
The increased spending is proving effective, as the Longhorns currently boast the No. 2 ranked 2023 recruiting class, according to 247Sports, with three five-star recruits committed to playing in Austin.
