To provide a counter point to the anti-FBS sentiment, I will say that for a school like SBU, a state flagship with an enrollment of over 26,000 and AAU status, being in the FCS is the exception, not the norm. All of our peers are FBS, and most of them yet are in P5 conferences. Hell, the only reason we're not there is likely because we're so new (founded in 1957), and the fact that SUNY banned all athletic scholarships in the 70s effectively freezing the growth of SUNY athletic departments for a 20 year period. To address the point of Buffalo moving to FBS so soon, they moved up as fast as they could as soon as the ban was lifted. We basically did the same thing going in the 90's going from D3 to D1/D1-AA over about a six year period. We're one of only two public AAU members in the FCS. UC Davis is the other. Simply put, our profile is that of an FBS school and we will make it there soon. If Heilbron gets an invite from an FBS conference, he's got to take it. As mentioned those don't come often. There are still JMU fans kicking themselves for not taking the Sun Belt invite a few years back despite the success they've had since.
UB has struggled the way they have because they have geography working against them. At the end of the day, you still have to recruit kids to Buffalo New York. Even in the MAC that's tough. We shouldn't let their struggles scare us off from being where we need to be. Long Island with NYC being right there is much more desirable than friggin Buffalo. Our academics also help here. Despite all of SBUs struggles in building a sociable campus culture, we're still able to get talented kids to come play here. That says something.
UMass is a whole other animal. They rejected a full invite from the MAC in order to keep their basketball in the A10. We wouldn't make the same mistake. Besides, if you actually look at their games, they have a competitive program. They've gotten VERY close to pulling some huge upsets. It's not like their program is completely inept. Being in the Northeast doesn't mean the program will totally flop at the FBS level. In fact, this past year has been the best for Northeast football in a long time. Buffalo, Army, Syracuse, Temple... all of them had good seasons. It's not impossible to win up here. It's not like we're jumping straight to the Big Ten. I agree I would never want to move up in order to be a perennial 2-10 program, but that's not what SBU would be if we continue investing into athletics and making good hires. I know I give Coach P a hard time a lot, but based on what I've seen, I see no reason why this program couldn't be competitive if we played in the MAC and got the talent to go with it.