Michigan Estimates Football Trip to Italy Will Cost Up to $800,000

University of Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said Tuesday he expects the final cost for the football team's trip to Italy in April to clock in somewhere between $750,000 and $800,000.

"It's going to come in around $750,000, $800,000," Manuel said, per the Detroit News' Angelique S. Chengelis. "Waiting on a few numbers, so we don't have it final, final, but it will be around 750, 800.

"It will be about $5,000 to $6,000 a person, so it was a great investment. It was just terrific. We pay them through an educational experience like Michigan does all the time. I don't think about it in terms of paying our athletes, but if people want to say we should give something to our students of value, I can't think of a better way to invest in them for their lifetime and their experience."

Manuel also confirmed the bill is being footed by an anonymous donor.

Michigan held spring practices during the trip, but the experience was about more than putting on the pads in fresh surroundings before the start of a new season.

Rather, it was billed as an immersive cultural experience for players and team personnel.

"You know, you go to the Colosseum. You’ve heard all about it, you've read all about it, and you are just blown away by it," head coach Jim Harbaugh said, according to the Detroit Free Press' Jeff Seidel. "You go to the Vatican and your socks are completely knocked off. Go to the cooking school and you have tasted things you have never tasted. See things you have never seen. Hear things at an opera you have never heard before.

"All learning is not done in a classroom."

Manuel has since said Michigan will "certainly look" to do the same trip again "in some way, shape or form," per Seidel.