Recruiting the high school blue chippers is big money for the largest Texas universities. Texas A&M and UT-Austin spent five million dollars combined last year on recruitment expenses for athletes -- and that's just on the stuff they admit!
Houston sports attorney and TSU Professor Walter Champion says parents of those athletes should be focused more on priorities than flashy meals and limo rides.
"Now what they ought to do is make sure you get the best deal; you get a four year arrangement, you get a deal where you get health benefits paid for -- that's probably more important than anything else."
If you're a parent who doesn't care about sports, you might not like how much money your kid's college is spending to recruit the football and basketball players. Champion says they sure don't spend that much to recruit the students who are there to get an academic degree.
"Do they do that same thing with kids who don't go out for sports but are in the top five percent of their high schools; do they recruit 'em that way? No."
Texas Tech says it spent nearly two million dollars on recruiting expenses -- including scouting players in Italy, France and Guam.