Seawolves Fans

Athletics => Conference and Athletics => Topic started by: What's a Seawolf?! on May 30, 2013, 03:46:32 am

Title: How can Stony Brook take the next step?
Post by: What's a Seawolf?! on May 30, 2013, 03:46:32 am
Offseason stinks so I'm bored and have been thinking about what ya'll think Stony Brook needs to do to get to the "next" level. I wrote a quick blurb since my sleep-wake cycle is nuked due to work (http://tinyurl.com/o47l4zz). I feel we're quite an ambitious bunch here so I wanted to here from you guys about your ideas.

On a non-athletic note, I think Stony Brook needs to establish itself as "the" flagship of the State University of New York. Forget being nice to our upstate colleagues, but I think the overall package at Stony Brook is unparalleled from academics to athletics. I know I'm biased, but I really do believe it to be true. I think President Stanley wanted Stony Brook to become the UCLA of the East Coast ultimately which would be a phenomenal long term goal.
Title: Re: How can Stony Brook take the next step?
Post by: RecoveringHillbilly on May 30, 2013, 04:27:36 am
UB's been beating the other SUNY's to the punch at every turn. Just this week we've gone ahead and done this: http://www.buffalobulls.com/sports/mbkb/2012-13/releases/20130529ea162n (http://www.buffalobulls.com/sports/mbkb/2012-13/releases/20130529ea162n)

(http://www.wgrz.com/images/640/360/2/imagepool/images/130529125730_UBfloor.jpg)

It's not a rebrand, though. We're not changing our athletic identity to 'New York' as we've been UB for far too long to change. It's just as our AD says, just a way to connect more broadly with others state-wide.

We usually have the guts to do these things because we maintain that private-school order to doing things our way we had in our 115 years as the University of Buffalo: first SUNY to become a major college/D1 program in 1962, the school that fought to overturn the SUNY athletic scholarship ban which forced us to drop down to D-3 between 1977-1986, first to gain an AAU invite, first to FBS, most of the reform ideas for SUNYNY2020 came from UB2020, etc.

But you guys should do something similar. If we can, nothing is stopping you, and you know Fiore would love to maintain a step ahead of Albany heading into the CAA.

UB and SBU have the best relations between any of the Centers and can both forge ahead. I found this great link of how schools reported their lists of peer universities, and you'll see UB and SBU share many. Michigan, Pitt, Rutgers, Virginia, Missouri, Colorado, Wisconsin, Iowa St ....ALL list UB and Stony Brook as peers! Go ahead and bait AE fans on your board with it :)

http://chronicle.com/article/Peers-Interactive-Data/134262/ (http://chronicle.com/article/Peers-Interactive-Data/134262/)
Title: Re: How can Stony Brook take the next step?
Post by: What's a Seawolf?! on May 30, 2013, 04:38:20 am
I absolutely love that court re-branding. I'm a proud New Yorker and our public schools should not forget that they represent the whole state. I definitely agree that UB and SBU have far more in common than SBU and Albany with both of us being powerhouse research institutions with large medical schools.

On a side-note, I'm tired of Syracuse calling itself "New York's college team". We have to be the only state where a private school can get away with that.
Title: Re: How can Stony Brook take the next step?
Post by: ecasadoSBU on May 30, 2013, 07:42:13 am
I think about this all the time. I would like SBU to target a larger geographic area even though I do think we already have a big enough potential market... Just targeting Long Island/New York City can bring us more than enough potential fans/alumni.

I also said before that I would love the four university centers to be renamed University of New York, X instead of the current SUNY name. IMO it would separate the Universities that have a research/graduate oriented mission from the rest of the Community/Four-year colleges with other missions. Another SBU fan called me an elitist for that... But I would say it would be a great idea for the marketing and branding of our public universities.

Meanwhile, improving/expansion of our facilities should be the main goal while having different stages of marketing targeting neighboring towns (which we've already done - see Port Jefferson) and expanding to the rest of Suffolk and Nassau Counties. Then in the future it would be great to start promoting the brand in the NYC market which is only an hour away. We have a ton of advantage on that over Buffalo, Syracuse, etc, etc





Title: Re: How can Stony Brook take the next step?
Post by: What's a Seawolf?! on May 30, 2013, 08:01:23 am
I was driving up East Broadway in Port Jeff and saw Seawolf Country flags on the side of the road. Very pleasant to see- these were definitely not there when I was a student. Stony Brook proper needs to become more of a college town too- I know a lot of Stony Brook residents will fight it, but I want Stony Brook to have the same feel of an Ann Arbor (hell or even Hanover where Dartmouth is located) some day.
Title: Re: How can Stony Brook take the next step?
Post by: Seawolf97 on May 30, 2013, 09:30:02 pm
I  love the tee Shirts  SBU was pushing recently - Pack the Park to get both the young fans and parents out and involved.    Branding  is going to big to raise funds  and I think the new arena   will be the crown jewel of the athletic department.  Hopefully we will move out of the AE one of these days. Everyone seems to expect us to be not long  for the AE anyway.  But it will take time and of course money and some risk taking to get there.
Title: Re: How can Stony Brook take the next step?
Post by: Hammertime on June 01, 2013, 06:05:02 am
VMI leaving the Big South for the Southern Conference. That leaves only 6 schools remaining in the BS.. SB must make a move real fast to get out of the BS and join the CAA for all their Div1 sports!!!

http://www.roanoke.com/sports/colleges/1974414-12/vmi-accepts-invitation-to-rejoin-southern-conference.html
Title: Re: How can Stony Brook take the next step?
Post by: ecasadoSBU on June 01, 2013, 01:27:26 pm
Hammer... We are technically no longer in the Big South... We were only in the Big South for football... Our football teams are now playing in the CAA. Our basketball teams, and olympics sports will continue to play in the America East. Our relationship with the Big South ends in July 1st I believe.

I wish the BSC luck with all this realignment. the SoCon will probably continue raiding them in the future as the SoCon will probably continue losing more teams to the CAA...
Title: Re: How can Stony Brook take the next step?
Post by: jaghatai on June 01, 2013, 11:02:56 pm
They got those signs up in Port Jeff sometime last year, and the residents here were very supportive.  I was pleasantly surprised with how they embraced it.

I really like that Buffalo court, kinda disappointed SBU didn't do something like that first...

I think the biggest thing SBU can do to take the next step is continue to "grow".  We're selling out hoops and football on a regular basis, but increasing seating and level of competition will be crucial.  I think growing the TV deals for away games, or even getting on ESPN3 regularly, would be a big step.  Televising home games is nice, but not a lot of casual fans will sit and listen to WUSB if the games in the Carolinas.

Leaving the America East (eventually) should be a goal, but consistently winning the America East should be the pre-req to leaving it.  Don't leave until you've established that you have outgrown it.
Title: Re: How can Stony Brook take the next step?
Post by: sbufan on June 02, 2013, 12:18:23 pm
I think at this point it's really just about winning. SBU probably has the best facilities and largest athletic budget in the AE. Now it comes down to winning some big games in order to get people to notice. I've said it a lot and I'll keep saying, Stony Brook has crazy potential. It's just a matter of when it starts living up to it.
Title: Re: How can Stony Brook take the next step?
Post by: Seawolf97 on June 02, 2013, 01:15:23 pm
Amen to that SBU Fan
Title: Re: How can Stony Brook take the next step?
Post by: Chairman of the Board on March 05, 2014, 07:30:17 am
another achievement for this relatively young university: http://www.goseawolves.org/genrel/030414aaa.html
Title: Re: How can Stony Brook take the next step?
Post by: Seawolf97 on March 05, 2014, 09:57:39 pm
I was at the  game Sunday when  our student hero did this, it was great really.