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Spending money not always the answer

It’s no surprise Duke pours money into its college hoops program. The Devils pay coach Mike Krzyzewski handsomely and spare no expense when it comes to recruiting.

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Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

But $13.87 million, or more than double than 330 of 346 other D-I schools? That, my friends, is a chunk of change. (It did pay off, given that Duke won the 2010 tournament and made more than $71 million, most of it due to the hoops program.)

That’s all part of a comprehensive story from FanHouse.com’s Brett McMurphy, who broke down the spending and money making in college basketball and college football. There’s more than just Duke, too.

Plenty of schools overspent on their programs (Virginia, Rice, Marquette, among them), while Ohio State, Purdue, Wake Forest and Baylor all managed plenty of bang from their buck.

Then again, all that dough is a pittance compared to how much some cities spend on 4th of July fireworks. Boston dumped $2.5 million into its 20 minutes Sunday night, or as much as Ole Miss spent on its entire hoops program.

I’ll let you decide money was better spent.

Mike Miller’s also on Twitter, usually talkin’ hoops. Click here for more.