Kentucky Spent $450,000 On Chartered Flights For Recruiting
By Ben Nielsen
Recruiting is expensive, and now we have some sort of a number to attach to said price. The Courier-Journal is reporting head men’s basketball coach John Calipari and football coach Mark Stoops totaled nearly $450,000 in private jet fees for recruiting purposes alone.
From the Courier-Journal:
"During a frenzied stretch last week, Calipari was in Los Angeles watching incoming freshman Karl-Anthony Towns be honored at the ESPY Awards one day, then in Augusta, Ga., to see a new crop of recruits the next. When NBA superstar LeBron James showed up in Lexington to watch his son play in a basketball tournament, Calipari suddenly appeared there, too — but only for a couple of hours. He was back evaluating recruits at Peach Jam in Georgia the same night.How does he do it? Apparently the “gold standard” at Kentucky that Calipari often talks about includes all but unfettered access to private jets. According to flight records obtained by The Courier-Journal, Calipari and football coach Mark Stoops combined to take $450,000 worth of chartered flights just for recruiting purposes during the 2013-14 fiscal year."
While the basketball team has been incredibly successful at Kentucky, Mark Stoops has yet to see the fruits of his labor payoff. Kentucky was 2-10 and winless in the SEC in Stoops first season as head coach, and things don’t look very promising for year two. Good news is that some of that $450,000 may be paying off on the recruiting trail.
ESPN ranked Kentucky’s incoming recruiting class 20th in the nation, which is not too shabby for a 2-10 team. The only problem with a 20th ranked recruiting class is that it is only good enough for a 10th place finish in the SEC, a conference the Wildcats regretfully play in – at least when it comes to football.
Still, the $450,000 does point to Kentucky’s commitment to improve the quality of their athletics beyond just basketball. Eventually one would think a few more recruiting classes like last year’s will help the Wildcats improve on their winless conference record. Granted, it may cost another 900 grand but that’s the cost of doing business in the SEC.