A few months ago now, Jim Harbaugh took advantage of an NCAA loophoole with some creative thinking and became the first college head coach to take his spring ball on the road, taking the Wolverines to IMG for four days for spring practice, which set off quite the firestorm among the coaching fraternity.
As soon as that was officially announced, I couldn't help but think how ridiculously expensive that trip had to be. Well now we have the answer, and the damages aren't near what I thought they would be.
As you can see, the grand total for the tip was just shy of $350,000 and the expenses split as follows:
IMG training facility: $146,912
Airfare: $107,148
Ground Transportation: $51,395
Meals / Per Diem: $39,519
Other: $3,580
(not included) Becoming the first college to take spring ball off campus and pissing off a number of other coaches: Priceless
I'm betting a number of coaches and athletic departments are looking at that number and seeing it as a pretty wise investment at this point.
Harbaugh and his staff are set to visit 38 satellite camps in the month of June alone (including one in Australia, one in Hawaii, and one in American Samao), so it would be really interesting to see the expense report from those trips as well - but I wouldn't hold your breath.