We all know Dabo Swinney has built a football power at Clemson and that landing some elite quarterbacks played a huge role in elevating the program from a conference contender to a two-time national championship winner but you may not be aware of the investment it took to get there.

When Swinney first took over at Clemson, the program’s annual recruiting budget was $292,595. For the latest recruiting cycle, the Tigers have spent $2.9 million on a single recruiting budget according to Jason Clary and Manie Robinson of the Greenville News.

Much of those costs seem to come from the fact that Clemson now recruits across the country for the majority of its roster, that’s not something that could have been said a decade ago. Up until 2012, Clemson’s roster was built with 42 percent of players being in-state prospects. Now, that number is all the way down to only 15 percent.

Those figures are both eye-opening and display the culture shift at Clemson under Swinney. While many programs talk about making a commitment to building a winner, few teams are willing to invest so much money and resources into actually doing it but those currently looking to build up their program may want to pay close attention to these figures.

Building up a college football program isn’t cheap but you have to spend money to consistently level the playing field against the elite in the game today. This data proves that fact.