How much money is devoted to recruiting in the SEC every year? We all have an idea: A LOT.

The Mobile Press-Register dug deeper this summer, though, searching for recruiting expenses from every school in the league. It’s part of a four-part series the newspaper started this weekend. It will continue this week, running up to SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala. You can access some of the stories on this blog post by Gentry Estes and following the links.

The Press-Register was able to obtain recruiting costs from 11 schools (Vanderbilt is private so the info can’t be obtained through open record laws) from the 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 years in football, men’s basketball and baseball.

And I know what you are interested in: How much does Arkansas spend. And where does it rank?

The Arkansas football program spent $490,771 (2005-06), $513,784 (2006-07) and $494,181 (2007-08) according to the info obtained by the Press-Register. It’s three-year average of $499,578 is sixth-highest in the SEC behind Tennessee, LSU, Auburn, Georgia and Florida. Interestingly, Tennessee spent an average of $1,081,250 in football recruiting.

Arkansas’ basketball program devotes more money to recruiting than most schools in the league. The Razorbacks’ three-year average in that sport, again, according to The Press-Register’s report, is $270,317. That’s good enough for third in the SEC behind Auburn ($303,371) and Florida ($281,210). Arkansas spent $304,275 last year in recruiting, which included a signing class that has only two members remaining.

Interestingly, the Razorbacks’ baseball program leads the SEC in recruiting costs with a three-year average of $82,670. Arkansas is followed by Kentucky ($74,918), Auburn ($67,627) and LSU ($59,663). The most Arkansas spent during the window the Press-Register invested was 2006-07, when it shelled out $91,756 in recruiting.

Interesting info and again, all of it was compiled by the Mobile Press-Register and can be found here.