PISCATAWAY — Rutgers University paid the Eastman & Beaudine consulting firm $135,000 for assistance in head-coaching searches over the last four months, a university spokesman told NJ Advance Media.
Rutgers paid the Plano, Tex.-based firm $75,000 for guidance in a six-day search that resulted in the Dec. 5, 2015, hiring of football coach Chris Ash and $60,000 in a nine-day search that resulted in the March 19 hiring of men's basketball coach Steve Pikiell, according to Kevin Lorincz, the school's associate athletics director for communications.
The combined $135,000 tab for searches that spanned a total of 15 days doesn't include a yet-to-be-determined bill for out-of-pocket expenses.