RE: Colorado-Mesa accused of "making up" WAC invite
BTW if you look at Collegiate Consulting's web site you discover it's an Atlanta based group. They list testimonials from Troy, FAMU, SIU-C, UT-RGV, and the Gulf South Conference (D-II). They list their team members former jobs with UNLV, Hofstra, UIC, ULL, St. Cloud State, Hartwick, UMBC, TAMU plus WVIAC (D-III conference).
If you look at their "News" page you see a hodgepaodge of schools and conferences from all over the country. It doesn't look to me like the WAC is anything like exclusive. Rather the same "both sides of the fence" consulting goes on at multiple places in the lower end of the conference spectrum -- those without the in-house "talent" to do these reports and evaluations.(Conferences like the B1G, SEC, P12, ACC would likely only hire a consulting company to give a parallel report so that they assure themselves their data gathering is at least as thorough and hit all the requirements of the NCAA)
But I can see where a conflict of interest could seem to arise, where a Consultant members might want to push a client school and a conference to make a move where they could milk extra fees. But you have to think both the conference expansion committee, made up of ADs and Presidents of member schools, and the leadership of the school in question would not be unduly influenced. After all Collegiate Consulting is playing the role of "match maker" and as with any match, the participants themselves have to decide if a relationship and nuptials make sense. So I think that is much ado about nothing.
Now the obvious WAC connection is Shannon M Hurd, who is a "copy editor", and Jeff Hurd's daughter.* That would give Collegiate Consulting a pretty direct source to know the inside decisions of the WAC.
* a quite online search revealed their ages, middle names, year of college graduation, of course address and more. I'll only note that Jeff Hurd is 68, and will be 69 when we start 2019-20 season. Something to keep in mind, succession that is.
Anyway, I think we can trust that tweet as accurate information given the direct contact they have with the WAC.
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