Wagner College utilized Collegiate Consulting for its Director of Athletics search. The search culminated today in the hiring of Georgetown Sr. Associate Athletic Director Ariel “AP” Pesante.
Collegiate Consulting worked closely with Wagner to create a diverse pool of applicants, which resulted in over 50 applicants and providing support throughout the selection process. Additionally, the firm helped with development and distribution of the job description as well as candidate review.
“We were delighted to engage Russell Wright and the Collegiate Consulting team as part of our search process. They were extremely valuable in developing a robust candidate pool and providing vetting and expertise throughout the process and lead us to hire a proven leader in AP as our next Athletic Director,” stated Wagner College president Jeff Doggett.
North Dakota State University and Sacramento State are joining the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for the 2026 season, increasing the number of FBS programs to 138; and Missouri State successfully completed its reclassification and will be full FBS member in 2026.
Both universities are entering FBS under a new NCAA rule that removes the previous two-year postseason restriction for transitioning institutions. As a result, North Dakota State and Sacramento State are eligible for bowl games and the College Football Playoff in their first FBS season. Missouri State completed its transition to the FBS and is now a full Conference USA member.
North Dakota State will compete as a football-only member of the Mountain West. Sacramento State will join the MAC. Both institutions will play their first FBS games on August 29. North Dakota State will host Jacksonville State in Fargo. Sacramento State will play at Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti. Missouri State will begin its 2026 season at Texas A&M on September 5.
“Successfully navigating the Division I reclassification process requires vision, institutional commitment and disciplined execution,” said Russell Wright, founder and managing director of Collegiate Consulting. “We congratulate Missouri State, Sacramento State and NDSU on full-membership/joining the FBS and look forward to their continued success.”
The Valparaiso University Department of Athletics and Collegiate Consulting have released a comprehensive valuation study demonstrating that Valpo Athletics provided an average annual economic impact of over $80 million over the past four years. During the four years studied, Valpo Athletics had a total economic impact of $320.11 million.
“Valpo Athletics engaged with Collegiate Consulting to help us quantify the impact that our presence as a Division-I athletic department makes on our University, city, region and state,” Director of Athletics and Campus Recreation Laurel Hosmer said. “We have always known that serving as a front porch for our institution is one of our department’s most important roles. The analysis provided by Collegiate Consulting in this study helps us take a data-driven approach to telling the story of our impact.”
This study examined and analyzed various factors including media exposure, brand visibility, net tuition, event visitor data, student-athlete volunteerism and more. Category-specific direct and indirect multipliers were used in the calculations. Over 300,000 unique viewers tuned into events featuring Valpo teams on ESPN+ in the past year alone. Over a million people have watched Valpo games on ESPN+ in the last four years. In the last four years, Valpo has been televised regionally through Gray Media and nationally on CBS Sports Network, FS1, Peacock, The CW, ESPNU and SEC Network.
The gameday and event economic impact of Valpo athletic events, camps and non-athletic events held in athletic venues over the past four years was $14.97 million. The athletics staff and student-athletes made a $55 million impact over the four-year timeframe, while the department also had a direct revenue impact of $18.62 million.
At its June meeting, the NCAA Division I Membership Committee approved key steps in the Division I reclassification process for the University of West Florida and the University of New Haven. Both institutions utilized Collegiate Consulting for their respective DI Feasibility Studies; assist with securing conference invitation; and support in their membership application/annual reclassification reporting requirements.
Effective August 1, 2026, the University of West Florida will begin the NCAA Division I reclassification process and the University of New Haven has advanced to Year Two of its Division I transition following the committee’s review of annual progress reports from institutions transitioning from Division II.
These actions represent the next phase in each institution’s long-term plan to transition its athletics program to Division I, aligned with its overall institutional objectives.
Former UCLA women’s basketball center Lauren Betts is known for making clutch points, but at this month’s 2026 ESPY Awards, she made a point about mental health. After she won Best College Athlete in Women’s Sports, she addressed the topic poignantly. “Your mental health is not separate from your success,” Betts said in her acceptance speech. “It is the foundation of everything that you do. The strongest people aren’t the ones who never struggle; they’re the ones who have the courage to let someone walk through the struggle with them.”
Just Women’s Sports addressed a 2001 study that showed “elevated rates of mental exhaustion, anxiety and depression among athletes across the board compared to pre-pandemic levels.”
Research by the NCAA found that athletes are hesitant to utilize the mental health resources on campus with 48% of females and 46% of males saying they would not “feel comfortable seeking support from a mental health care provider on campus.” And that’s if the resources are there to begin with. The NCAA does not mandate a dedicated mental health staffer, so many schools outsource athlete counseling to campus health centers, often with graduate student caregivers. The Journal for Advancing Sport Psychology in Research cited “around 65 out of 253 surveyed NCAA Division I Football subdivision athletic departments explicitly list dedicated mental health or performance staff.”
While performance stress and injury were common causes of mental pressure for athletes, social media has added flame to the fire. In a recent article from The Athletic, Performance Coach Jeff Troesch said the effect of social media and smartphones over the past 10 years has emerged as the most disruptive change regarding mental performance that he’s witnessed in over four decades in the industry. Per The Athletic’s Jayson Jenks, Troesch said he spends an increased amount of time in student-athlete sessions helping them “manage the fallout from online trolling, the sense that they have ‘got to post’ regularly to ‘stay relevant’ and the habits of staying hypervigilant about what their competition might look like, train like or generally experience. A great number of these athletes then translate this information into narratives they find anxiety-inducing.”
Numbers are more than statistics in college brings; numbers underscore the tremendous value that intercollegiate athletics brings.
Our comprehensive economic impact and media exposure analysis studies examine revenue sources such as media rights, NCAA and conference distributions, bowl game proceeds, sponsorships, licensing and endowment income. Combined with economic impact metrics, studies also measure economic impacts over several years providing financial effects on the university as a whole, surrounding towns and cities and sometimes entire states.
Measurable impacts not only assist athletic departments in assessing current success, but can also be used in future planning.
As we continue to partner with institutions of varying size and conference competition level, we are excited to explore opportunities for each new and existing clients. Several moving pieces to research give our university partners an expanded perspective for potential excellence.
We thrive on connection with our college athletic community and we seek to champion their notable actions and achievements.
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