Louisville recruiting budget ranks among Top 10 nationally, #1 in Big East

Not surprisingly, at $434,095 (publicly divulged, of course), Kentucky's recruiting budget comes in at #1 overall amongst men's basketball programs at public schools in BCS conferences. Our neighbors in Lexington spent nearly $180,000 more than Louisville (#6 overall; $263,391 budget), three times as much as their opponent tonight, the Ohio State Buckeyes (#26; $152,981), and nearly eight times more than Wisconsin (#53; $57,397), who lost to Butler last night in the Sweet 16. 

To their credit, UK's 2011 class is currently ranked #1 by ESPN (updated yesterday). These young recruits these days. They want to be Kentucky so bad that poor Calipari has to spend four and a half times as much money on recruiting them to Lexington than Roy Williams at North Carolina (#45; $98,517).

What may surprise you is who's doing more with less: Rutgers. The men's team. SRSLY. The Scarlet Knights spent just $74,902 (next to last) but currently own one of the fifteen best 2011 recruiting classes according to ESPN. 

The entire list is included after the jump below.

Here's the entire list of 2010-2011 men's basketball recruiting budgets via Eben Novy-Williams and his story on Bloomberg.com.

Below are recruiting expenditures**, ranked from highest to lowest, for public schools in the Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference and Pac-10.

1. Kentucky -- $434,095

2. Kansas -- $419,228

3. Florida -- $326,306

4. Arkansas -- $322,517

5. Oklahoma -- $316,755

6. Louisville -- $263,391

7. Iowa State -- $254,584

8. West Virginia -- $223,632

9. Auburn -- $222,128

10. Arizona -- $215,246

11. Alabama -- $209,218

12. Virginia Tech -- $197,269

13. Illinois -- $187,157

14. Georgia -- $186,906

15. Michigan -- $186,732

16. Clemson -- $180,621

17. Minnesota -- $176,677

18. Connecticut -- $175,740

19. Arizona State -- $174,682

20. Virginia -- $173,884

21. Texas -- $164,935

22. Missouri -- $163,800

23. Kansas State -- $161,567

24. Oregon State -- $159,763

25. Nebraska -- $159,166

26. Ohio State -- $152,981

27. Cincinnati -- $151,341

28. Georgia Tech -- $149,516

29. South Florida -- $148,778

30. Indiana -- $143,287

31. UCLA -- $141,824

32. Texas A&M -- $138,584

33. South Carolina -- $132,758

34. Texas Tech -- $132,268

35. Washington State -- $131,193

36. California -- $126,678

37. Tennessee -- $122,675

38. Colorado -- $121,759

39. Oregon -- $119,152

40. Oklahoma State -- $117,364

41. Washington -- $113,421

42. Michigan State -- $108,478

43. Louisiana State -- $107,164

44. Maryland -- $100,551

45. North Carolina -- $98,517

46. Purdue -- $97,123

47. Florida State -- $93,119

48. Mississippi -- $90,935

49. North Carolina State -- $87,613

50. Mississippi State -- $79,285

51. Iowa -- $76,547

52. Rutgers -- $74,902

53. Wisconsin -- $57,397

**According to expense reports from 53 schools obtained through open-records requests. Private schools such as Duke University aren't required to divulge the information (Editor: please also note that teams like UNLV and Memphis from conferences such as the Mountain West and Conference USA were not included either).