As the Clemson football program continues to trend upward, so does its recruiting budget.

The Greenville News and Anderson Independent Mail examined annual financial reports from the university. These are the biggest takeaways in regards to recruiting:

Big spenders

► In the 2009-10 academic year, which included Dabo Swinney's first full season as head coach, Clemson spent $292,595 on recruiting. Last year, Clemson spent $2.9 million.

► Last year, Clemson spent $1.9 million just on recruiting travel, including $1.4 million on use of the university aircraft, $126,298 on charter fights and $37,280 for commercial airfare.

► Recruiting spending exceeded $1 million for the first time in 2015-16. That year, Clemson bought a second aircraft for athletic use.

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Players from across the country

► From 2006 to 2012, 42 percent of Clemson’s signees were from South Carolina. Through the past eight recruiting cycles, that percentage dropped to 24. Since 2017, merely 15 percent of Clemson recruits have been South Carolinians.

► Clemson’s only 2020 commitments from South Carolina are Demonte Capehart, a defensive lineman from Hartsville, and Tyler Venables, a safety from Clemson who is the son of defensive coordinator Brent Venables.

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It takes a village

► Aside from the coaches, Clemson's recruiting is commanded by four full-time staff members: director of recruiting and external affairs Thad Turnipseed, director of recruiting operations Jordan Sorrells, director of on-campus recruiting Tyler Clements and director of recruiting graphic design Joe Robbins.

► Last year, Clemson spent $684,690 on compensation for these full-time salaried personnel, some student workers and temporary staff. Outside of travel and compensation, Clemson spent $344,400 on recruiting operations, including $74,660 in printing and binding services and $16,595 for postage. That includes letters, offers and creative images the program may send a prospect.

► That operations expense is more than Clemson's total recruiting expense in 2009, $321,591. Clemson spent less than $400,000 each year from 2006 and 2010. During that span, Clemson cracked the Top 10 of the ESPN recruiting rankings only once.

Football out-spends them all

► In 2017-18, Clemson spent $1.79 million on football recruiting, $1 million more than it spent for recruiting in all other sports combined.