College football programs don’t come cheap these days. Coaches require enormous salaries. Top-tier players increasingly expect NIL deals. And recruitment alone can run into the millions.
Including, apparently, tens of thousands of dollars worth of balloons.
Nearly $32,000 of the Arkansas Razorbacks’ football recruiting budget in 2024 was spent on balloons, according to an article published yesterday by the website FOIAball. Arkansas’s total balloon spending ranked seventh and was nearly double the average balloon spending of the nearly 40 schools who responded to Freedom of Information Act requests sent by FOIAball. The watchdog website, which exclusively focuses on the world of college football, is the project of journalist David Covucci.
Why did Arkansas’s academic flagship spend the equivalent of a new Subaru Forester on helium-filled mylar and latex? Largely, it seems, because that’s what everyone else was doing. According to FOIAball:
There are balloons for recruiting visits, balloons for press conferences, balloons for home games, balloons to send teams off for away games, balloons for official signing days, balloons for anniversaries of Rose Bowl victories ten years ago (Michigan State).
According to On3.com, Arkansas’s football recruiting budget in 2024 was just over $1.3 million. So, by that metric, $32,000 on balloons — just over 2% of the total budget — is hardly the end of the world. Still, it’s an example of just how much money is flying around in college sports, often with lackluster results. Arkansas finished the 2024 season at the pinnacle of mediocrity, with a 6-6 regular season record and a Friday-after-Christmas bowl game against 6-6 Texas Tech.
Of course, the 2024 Hogs could hardly be faulted for thinking profligate spending on balloons and decorations was the way to win hearts and minds. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders herself kicked off the 2023 football season with a $13,000 invitation-only party, including more than $700 in balloons. Perhaps the Razorbacks were just following her lead?
Whatever the rationale, one would hope that the $1.3 million spent on recruiting last year, including the balloons, would mean the 2025 season would be better than 2024. Instead, after beating up on two cupcake opponents to open the season, Arkansas flopped completely and stumbled to a final record of 2-10. They played the last seven contests under interim head coach Bobby Petrino, after head Hog Sam Pittman was fired following a 56-13 pummeling by Notre Dame. Arkansas announced in late November that Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield was taking over the program; he’ll be paid $6.5 million in his first year on the job, according to Whole Hog Sports.
One bright spot — pun somewhat intended — in Arkansas’s spending on recruiting decorations was a giant lighted sign (surrounded by balloons, of course) reading “EMBRACE THE HOG.” Or, as FOIAball put it:
Okay, let’s talk motivational slogans. Alongside balloons, you need an LED marquee that lets people know what you stand for. Think actionable phrases replaced with some letters to reflect the current calendar year, like HU2TL5. […]
They’re all good. None of them can top Arkansas, which made me yelp in joy when I first saw it.