Lavish training facilities have become a major component of the ever-competitive college football recruiting wars. The University of Houston, soon to join the Power 5, just got a major cash infusion to compete.
The school has received an anonymous $10 million gift for a future Football Development Center, which will be used mainly to woo potential recruits. It will yield a 100,000-square-foot enclave with “cutting-edge amenities.”
The development center is part of Houston’s glow-up plan as it readies itself to enter the Big 12 in 2023. In total, the project is worth $150 million.
“Our infrastructure is relatively sound but without the FDC, we are well behind our peers,” football coach Dana Holgorsen said in a statement. “This brings us up to standard and gives us a resource that will allow us to compete for the talent we need to win in the Big 12.”
Houston’s athletic department “hopes the $10 million gift will motivate other major gift donors to come forward and invest.”
But athletic director Chris Pezman noted that “an eight-figure gift is rare.”
