...and VT took a pass. He had previous experience with a client, sent VT a bunch of gratuitous 'helpful' materials, and tried to leverage that into a new project. Oldest trick in the book.

I didn't see any evidence that VT was 'going it alone' (whatever that means). I only saw quotes that indicated we didn't hire Thomas Mars.

Mars: "I assume that Virginia Tech felt confident that they had everything under control and just didn’t need any help"
Maybe it should say that he could assume that VT didn't need HIS help. LOL.