Recently, an analysis of recruiting spending was put out (https://watchstadium.com/this-is-how-much-it-costs-to-land-one-of-college-footballs-top-recruiting-classes-07-24-2019/), and I thought it was excellent. It got me curious, so I used their data and ran a couple of correlations and plotted them. (I normalized all of the variables, correlation is below each graph).
Of note, a good point was made by my friend Saiem Gilani. The variables here are most likely a feedback loop. High spending begets good recruiting, which then begets winning and more good recruiting. Following his wisdom, I would caution about drawing any direct causal inference. That being said, the relationship between spending and outcome is nonetheless interesting (at least to me).
