But one of those schools requires that 90% of your student athletes now have their competitions on a school day rather than a weekend day and the other doesn't. Which one do you take?
It's absolutely an issue. It may not be the only issue.
What they say publicly is PR. How would it be taken if they said, "they are qualified in every other way and by far the best program out there but we can't work around the no Sunday play issue?" I don't think it would go over that well. Maybe that's just me. It's easier to put rumors out there like, "they are difficult to work with" and such.