The challenges of men’s college basketball recruiting on a small budget

LAST MONTH, MOREHEAD STATE men’s basketball head coach Preston Spradlin entered Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas around 4 a.m., 90 minutes before his flight to Cincinnati was scheduled to depart. He’d just evaluated high school prospects at multiple grassroots tournaments, and he was ready to go home.

What should have been a four-hour direct flight, however, became extended as the plane was forced to stop in Indianapolis due to weather. When Spradlin reached Cincinnati, hours later, he still had to drive two hours to Morehead, Kentucky, which doesn’t have a major airport.

Spradlin finally arrived home, nearly 21 hours after leaving Las Vegas the previous day. But he couldn’t rest. He had to prepare for a 9 a.m. practice.

“If you’ve got the resources and the ability to hop on a private plane and fly, that’s more time you get to spend with your team on campus or with your family,” Spradlin, who led his team to an Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title last season, told ESPN. “Those are disadvantages you have at this level, but you’ve got to figure out ways to be creative with it.”

Spradlin’s recruiting predicament is familiar to head coaches at Division I mid-major men’s college basketball programs, who must identify creative, often taxing, ways to travel the country — and sometimes the world — to find players in a landscape that has dramatically changed in recent years. It’s a different experience compared to the more luxurious recruiting lives of coaches at elite programs, who often have access to private jets, high-end hotels and fewer cost concerns.

The University of Kentucky, for example, has a $2.3 million recruiting budget for its men’s teams, per Department of Education data. In contrast, Morehead State — an hour outside Lexington — spends $111,000 annually.

Kansas, which won the 2022 national championship and recently added Michigan transfer Hunter Dickinson, pays $20,000 a month to private charter service WheelsUp for head coach Bill Self to use for personal and business use, including recruiting trips. At Michigan State, Tom Izzo has had access to private jets for recruiting since 2010, when he signed an extension following back-to-back Final Four trips. Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson’s contract includes a clause for “use of charter flights for regular season and tournament games and for recruiting trips,” per the Houston Chronicle.

And earlier this month, Florida State‘s booster club, the Seminole Boosters, agreed to pay $9 million to buy two planes the athletic department will be allowed to use, per the Tallahassee Democrat.

Wealthy boosters can also lend their planes to coaches for recruiting needs, such as former Iowa representative Steve Sukup, who has loaned his private plane (and pilot) out to Iowa State coaches on recruiting trips in previous years.

From Arizona State to Syracuse, the access to private travel and…