You’ll never guess how many people work behind the scenes of an SEC team

The debate about college football staff sizes — whether they’re too big, should the NCAA or conferences limit the number of positions — is usually missing one key fact. That is, who are these staff members and exactly what do they all do?

Major college programs are typically vague about these facts, but Brandon Marcello of Auburn Undercover did a nice job of collecting the information after Auburn’s recent shakeup in its off-fiend football staff.

See if you’re surprised by some of these positions.

There are directors of player relations, player personnel and high school relations.

There is a director of equipment operations, two equipment managers and an assistant equipment manager.

In all, there are 33 positions listed, which doesn’t include the actual coaches on the field.

That number is not out of line with the competition and it certainly doesn’t include dozens of other support personnel.

So the next time you hear a coach talk about the need for additional staff, just remember that at Auburn — which is typical of the competition — there is an administrative support specialist for recruiting who answers to a coordinator of recruiting operations and two administrators of recruiting operations and a director of recruiting operations as well as the recruiting coordinator and head football coach.

That’s a lot.

For Threaded Fasteners, I’m Randy Kennedy with Nuts and Bolts of the Game.