Recruiting budgets for track and field programs in the Atlantic Coast Conference won't blow you away. But it's not always what you spend, but how you spend it. And ultimately, what most teams crave is that pivotal return on investment. Because when it comes to championships, one great class may be the difference.
By Maxx Bradley - MileSplit
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As the Director of Track and Field and Cross Country at the University of North Carolina, the fall of 2020 marked a pivotal moment in the progression of the Tar Heel cross country program for Chris Miltenberg.
After successfully navigating through the unprecedented challenges of recruiting during a global pandemic, Miltenberg and his staff were bringing in a freshman class that was set to bring the program back to national relevancy in 2021, and here's the juice: They did it with little to no budget at all.
"We are extremely excited about this incredible group we have joining the Carolina track and field family next year," Miltenberg said in a statement after nailing down a signature Class of 2021 recruiting class. "As we continue to climb towards being one of the very best complete teams in the country again, these are absolutely the right people that we want on this mission with us.
"Through a recruiting landscape during the pandemic that has been unlike any we have ever seen, our coaching staff did an incredible job of building relationships with each of these recruits and finding the right people for Carolina and our program that understand our values and are ready to climb the mountain with us."
During the pandemic, NCAA programs near and far slashed budgets, severing typical operating expenses, including recruiting. By 2021, most of those budgets were still realigning.
But recruiting still had to go on.
Miltenberg had been hired just a year earlier that June, arriving after seven years with Stanford. However, it didn't take long for 'Coach Milt' to hit the ground running. On both the men's and women's side, the Tar Heel staff brought in five newcomers, which made for one of the best freshmen rosters in the NCAA.
A year later, budgets saw progress and jumped back to normal numbers.
But what UNC accomplished during the COVID year would make a big impact. Little did Miltenberg and the Tar Heel staff know, but that incoming group of freshman would be the difference maker for the program. From here on out, North Carolina stock was only going up.
The ACC By The Numbers
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MileSplit reached out to all 15 current Atlantic Coast Conference programs -- along with Stanford, California and SMU, which will be joining the ACC in the summer of 2024 -- to determine how much each track and field team spend over the 2021-2022 calendar year in recruiting.
The conference's six private universities -- Boston College, Duke, Miami, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Wake Forest -- either declined to provide the financial reports for this article, or did not respond in general. The University of Pittsburgh, the lone public university to not provide the data, was not subject to state public record requests.
From first glance, Clemson stands out among the rest, as they're the lone program that exceeded $100,000 in recruiting expenditures during the 2021-2022 academic year -- that year, the Tigers landed a prized transfer, Cameron Rose.
Behind them, it was North Carolina and North Carolina State as the only other two programs to surpass a $65,000 spent.
BUDGET YEAR 2021-2022
| school | men | women | recruiting budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clemson | $44,917.00 | $61,143.00 | $106,060.00 |
| North Carolina | $45,147.00 | $45,147.00 | $90,294.00 |
| NC State | $37,443.00 | $49,653.00 | $87,096.00 |
| Virginia | $34,399.00 | $28,666.00 | $63,065.00 |
| Virginia Tech | $31,899.00 | $22,368.00 | $54,267.00 |
| Louisville | $23,033.00 | $29,288.00 | $52,321.00 |
| Florida State | $23,097.00 | $28,136.00 | $51,233.00 |
| Georgia Tech | $14,122.00 | $26,981.00 | $41,103.00 |
TRACK MONEY COMPARED TO ATHLETIC BUDGETS
| school | total athletic recruiting budget | t&F% |
|---|---|---|
| Clemson | $4,211,856.00 | 2.52% |
| North Carolina | $2,513,146.00 | 3.60% |
| NC State | $1,927,683.00 | 4.50% |
| Virginia | $2,157,359.00 | 2.92% |
| Virginia Tech | $1,838,881.00 | 2.95% |
| Louisville | $2,129,809.00 | 2.46% |
| Florida State | $1,619,148.00 | 3.16% |
| Georgia Tech | $1,940,118.00 | 2.12% |
Despite spending the most compared to its ACC counterparts, however, Clemson ranked in the bottom three in terms of how much its athletic department set aside for the track and field program across all sports.
In fact, it was Rollie Geiger and his staff at NC State that received the largest percentage of budget allocation from their university, as the Wolfpack were allotted 4.5-percent of the athletic department's overall recruiting budget.
Compared to the other 13 varsity sports at NC State, Geiger and Co. had more money to work with than the baseball, golf, gymnastics, rifle, softball, tennis, volleyball and wrestling teams. This money only pertained directly to recruiting efforts and not to operating costs.
The amount allocated to the program shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, though, since the NC State women are now three-time defending NCAA cross country champions and have brought in some of the best high school talents in the country since 2019.
A few of those names include Kelsey Chmiel (2019), Katelyn Tuohy (2020), Marlee Starliper (2020), Brooke Rauber (2021), Leah Stephens (2023) and the program's top recruit in the Class of 2024, Bethany Michalak.
As it does throughout all of collegiate athletics, a single question consistently looms above every athletic program year-after-year, one that could drastically impact the future of each program.
Does spending correlate to success?
* Katelyn Tuohy's signing has been a huge win for NC State
Photo Credit: Kirby Lee/USA Today
It's All About The Hardware
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Thanks to its previously mentioned national team titles and the four individual NCAA titles from superstar Katelyn Tuohy, that's an easy yes for NC State.
A national title is a national title.
Although, it's not as easy of a question to answer for the other seven programs we have data for.
Over the last three years, all eight ACC programs except Georgia Tech have finished in the top three at least once at one of the three the ACC championships.
Although a bulk of the programs have a top three finish under their belt, only Clemson, North Carolina, NC State, Florida State and Virginia Tech have won an ACC title since 2021.
Hardware is a pretty good justification for more budget.
WOMEN'S -- ACC FINISHES
| Program | 2023 XC | 2023 Out. | 2023 Ind. |
| Clemson | 14 | 10 | 3 |
| North Carolina | 5 | 8 | 10 |
| NC State | 1 | 6 | 4 |
| Virgina | 3 | 5 | 9 |
| Virginia Tech | 10 | 2 | 1 |
| Louisville | 13 | 9 | 8 |
| Florida State | 11 | 4 | 6 |
| Georgia Tech | 9 | 13 | 12 |
| Program | 2022 XC | 2022 Out. | 2022 Ind. |
| Clemson | 14 | 5 | 9 |
| North Carolina | 4 | 9 | 6 |
| NC State | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Virgina | 3 | 7 | 5 |
| Virginia Tech | 8 | 8 | 1 |
| Louisville | 15 | 6 | 10 |
| Florida State | 5 | 3 | 7 |
| Georgia Tech | 10 | 11 | 11 |
| Program | 2021 XC | 2021 Out. | 2021 Ind. |
| Clemson | 15 | 5 | 5 |
| North Carolina | 2 | 9 | 9 |
| NC State | 1 | 5 | 8 |
| Virgina | 10 | 3 | 3 |
| Virginia Tech | 7 | 7 | 4 |
| Louisville | 13 | 10 | 7 |
| Florida State | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Georgia Tech | 8 | 11 | 11 |
MEN'S -- ACC FINISHES
| Program | 2023 XC | 2023 Out. | 2023 Ind. |
| Clemson | 12 | 1 | 3 |
| North Carolina | 1 | 6 | 5 |
| NC State | 8 | 13 | 11 |
| Virgina | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| Virginia Tech | 11 | 5 | 1 |
| Louisville | 14 | 3 | 4 |
| Florida State | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Georgia Tech | 10 | 14 | 14 |
| Program | 2022 XC | 2022 Out. | 2022 Ind. |
| Clemson | 13 | 6 | 3 |
| North Carolina | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| NC State | 5 | 4 | 12 |
| Virgina | 6 | 7 | 10 |
| Virginia Tech | 8 | 8 | 1 |
| Louisville | 12 | 6 | 8 |
| Florida State | 9 | 3 | 2 |
| Georgia Tech | 11 | 11 | 14 |
| Program | 2021 XC | 2021 Out. | 2021 Ind |
| Clemson | 14 | 6 | 4 |
| North Carolina | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| NC State | 6 | 8 | 11 |
| Virgina | 8 | 3 | 7 |
| Virginia Tech | 9 | 2 | 1 |
| Louisville | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| Florida State | 5 | 1 | 3 |
| Georgia Tech | 12 | 14 | 11 |
* UNC's Parker Wolfe finished ninth at the NCAA XC Championships on Nov. 18 in Charlottesville
Photo Credit: David Nguyen/FloTrack
The Long-Tail Success Of UNC
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In the fall of 2021, just a year after North Carolina's blue-chip signing class, the Tar Heels' young female corps -- led by 2021 Denton Guyer (TX) graduate Brynn Brown -- propelled the program to a runner-up finish at the ACC Championships, finishing behind the eventual national champions North Carolina State.
The men -- led by 2021 Cherry Creek (CO) star Parker Wolfe -- finished fourth and were just a mere six points back of third.
A year before, the women were fifth and the men were seventh. The program's infusion of talent clearly made the team better, which marked a huge jump in improvement over a very little period of time. In fact, it turned out to be the best finish the program had seen since 2014.
On top of an all-around strong and historical performance from both teams, the Tar Heels also swept the ACC Freshman of the Year awards, as both Brown and Wolfe were the first true freshman to finish in both races.
Two weeks following the ACC championships, Miltenberg's squad was back in action at the NCAA Southeast Regional, where the women were runner-up to the Wolfpack again and the men came in third.
By finishing second, the women automatically advanced to the NCAA championships, with the men eventually receiving an at-large bid the next day.
The women went on to conclude their season as the 14th-best program in the country, while the men finished 18th, with Wolfe the lone All-American for the Tar Heels in 28th.
It was clear by then that not only was the most recent recruiting class going to be a part of the resurgence, but the Tar Heels were also going to be the ones leading the charge upfront.
"We are extremely excited about this incredible group we have joining the Carolina track and field family next year. As we continue to climb towards being one of the very best complete teams in the country again, these are absolutely the right people that we want on this mission with us. Through a recruiting landscape during the pandemic that has been unlike any we have ever seen, our coaching staff did an incredible job of building relationships with each of these recruits and finding the right people for Carolina and our program that understand our values and are ready to climb the mountain with us." -- Chris Miltenberg
The following year, both teams made another leap, as the women finished fifth in the nation and the men were 10th.
Fast forward to this season.
Everything finally fell into place this month as the men made history, winning their first ACC title since 1985.
Leading the way at the very front was -- you guessed it -- Wolfe, who won his first ACC title in the process, with both Ethan Strand and Colton Sands playing pivotal roles as well; the pair finished sixth and 29th.
It hadn't even been three years since the recruiting Class of 2021 stepped foot on UNC's campus in Chapel Hill, and yet, those 10 athletes have already more than proven they were well worth their signings.
The very next year, UNC used a recruiting budget of $90,000 to court the likes of Blaise Atkinson, Luke Wiley, Aiden Neal, Gitch Hayes and Walker St. John -- Hayes turned out to be the team's fifth-runner during the program's sixth-place finish at NCAAs on Nov. 18.
With athlete eligibility still remaining, however, the job is not complete just yet.
As Miltenberg and his staff continually recruit new talent on campus and develop the likes of Wolfe and Co. within the squad year-over-year, UNC remains a team on a mission to win a national title.
There's little doubt that one successful recruiting season can be all the difference.
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