Seawolves Fans

Someone mentioned on this board or elsewhere  an interesting comment  from our AD prior to Fiore arriving at  SBU  in I guess 1999-2000. The former AD  as a parting shot said  SBU  would never  be able to fund and maintain a full D 1 program.  So here  we are 14-15 years later gearing up  for the  next level  of  play.   It will be a tough  road but can be done if done right.  Start bringing in  Navy,  Boston College  etc for  football  or a  Pttsburgh  or St Johns in hoops  the people will come.  Suffolk has 1.5 million people and the  Met  Life Stadium is painfull to reach and expensive - so spend a Saturday  watching FBS football at SBU .   I went to the SBU  -Army game and they draw good  crowds  and basically the same distance from NYC about 50 miles.  So if Army can draw  so can we.

Amen Seawolf97...

 After what I have read  with our incoming AD  and Dr. Stanley's comments  I think we have an institutional  commitment to move up over the course of the next 10 years.  At least 1 major local private  school ( Fordham) is jealous but  commends our ability to plan our future.

Our fan base has to grow and brand recognition  along with it.  I used the   example of Army a team that has fallen on hard times but still draws  the crowds  built just on its  legendary  past.  Our facilities  are either brand new or recently   renovated so that wont be an issue.  Our new AD's mission for now is  grow  fans in the seats and   raise   funding from private sources. So I expect  over the next few years it will be  about money and winning at this level across the board.  Tricky in  our unstable economy but do able.  Of course the instability of college sports itself is another  big factor .  So hopefully we can overcome  all this in the next ten years.  Exciting times are ahead of us!  We  need a piece of the NY market place to carve our niche.

I  think if we maintain  a wining culture, keep  it fan friendly  with reasonable  prices  we can draw  15-18 k easily someday.   We are the only  game in town  for college football on Long Island,  easier travel and less money than  the NFL.    Lax is big  out here  for  sure but football  is fall sport,  and can fill that space until the lacrosse season begins.

I understand the beginning of Stanley's quote is likely him speaking in a guarded fashion. Even as president of an FCS school I'm sure he's paid attention to the majority of recent move-ups and not just the cases of FCS success UMass, App St and Georgia Southern earned. Georgia St, ODU, UTSA, Charlotte: One FCS indy to Sun Belt start-up [dud] and 3 start-ups going brief FCS indy then straight to CUSA. And South Alabama also started from scratch with its Sun Belt position already set.

Buffalo joined the MAC in most sports in '98 and joined MAC FB in '99. But the invitation to join the MAC came in March '93 when UB was still a D3 football program, before the move to 1AA in fall '93. All it took were stipulations including adding 14K seats and baseball/softball. It occurred in the same meeting when MAC re-invitations went out to Marshall and NIU.  Not only were those 3 invited, but YSU was also analyzed. A program with a recent 1991 1AA Championship, a 1992 title game loss, and Jim Tressel? No thanks, said the MAC presidents. No new market gained, too redundant with Akron/Kent St. If you have a plan for gaining financial means and data showing new market penetration & potential, some FBS league will take a serious look.

I understand the beginning of Stanley's quote is likely him speaking in a guarded fashion. Even as president of an FCS school I'm sure he's paid attention to the majority of recent move-ups and not just the cases of FCS success UMass, App St and Georgia Southern earned. Georgia St, ODU, UTSA, Charlotte: One FCS indy to Sun Belt start-up [dud] and 3 start-ups going brief FCS indy then straight to CUSA. And South Alabama also started from scratch with its Sun Belt position already set.

Buffalo joined the MAC in most sports in '98 and joined MAC FB in '99. But the invitation to join the MAC came in March '93 when UB was still a D3 football program, before the move to 1AA in fall '93. All it took were stipulations including adding 14K seats and baseball/softball. It occurred in the same meeting when MAC re-invitations went out to Marshall and NIU.  Not only were those 3 invited, but YSU was also analyzed. A program with a recent 1991 1AA Championship, a 1992 title game loss, and Jim Tressel? No thanks, said the MAC presidents. No new market gained, too redundant with Akron/Kent St. If you have a plan for gaining financial means and data showing new market penetration & potential, some FBS league will take a serious look.

Our fan base has to grow and brand recognition  along with it.  I used the   example of Army a team that has fallen on hard times but still draws  the crowds  built just on its  legendary  past.  Our facilities  are either brand new or recently   renovated so that wont be an issue.  Our new AD's mission for now is  grow  fans in the seats and   raise   funding from private sources. So I expect  over the next few years it will be  about money and winning at this level across the board.  Tricky in  our unstable economy but do able.  Of course the instability of college sports itself is another  big factor .  So hopefully we can overcome  all this in the next ten years.  Exciting times are ahead of us!  We  need a piece of the NY market place to carve our niche.

I remember when the MAC re-added NIU, took a fledgeling Buffalo team and ever ambitious Marshall.   That worked despite the loss of Marshall and UCF (later).

Round II was Temple/UMass which got messed up when Temple quickly got an offer from the then Big East and bolted about as fast as the Colts did from Baltimore many years ago.

I still believe that the MAC, CAUTIOUSLY, twice burned, is still looking at Round III FB expansion.

What I see is:  Two schools, eastern FCS schools, must join together, all sports, and literally joined at the hips.

Where I think SB had bad timing.  Let's fast forward 5 - 7 years:  UMass was stuck as #13 and 13 is a bad, bad number.  The MAC wanted #14.  If SB was further along say where you hope to be in 2020, SB could have been #14.  I'm guessing that the MAC would have allowed UMass to be football only IF they had a solid #14 for FB and SB meets the general requirements.

It would be nice if there was another school chomping at the bit to go FBS.  Delaware comes to mind. Then come as a package deal.

BTW, MAC FBS FB is financially feasible.  MAC schools should begin receiving 1M/year/school from the college FB playoffs starting this FB season. MAC supposedly is working on a new television deal with ESPN.  MAC schools typically get 1M+ each year road game guarantees (a good guarantee can be in the 600 - 750K range).    Some MAC schools can earn 1M a year in home FB game revenues (say 50K tixs @ an ave. of $20 each or 10K per 5 home games.)

yes but thurs night games will be best for student participation, no?  didnt we do one thurs night game recently?  how did it turn out?

Beyond attendance and game dates, Stony Brook would be wise to also strike a local TV deal for football as the schedule improves and the team acclimates to the CAA.  There are only so many slots open for CAA NBCSN and Comcast/SNY games. So, for example, if SBU could gain a deal with WLNY 10/55 for select home game broadcast, it would benefit both parties. Not everyone wants to watch games online so SBU gains coverage across the market, and WLNY gains filler for Saturdays.

It would then become much like the deals FBS and higher-level FCS teams hold. Here in WNY, UB will have games broadcast on 3 different Tiers. 1st tier is the ESPN/2/U/Regional deal. 2nd tier are home games picked up by Time-Warner Cable Sports. The 3rd tier is a new deal reached with the local NBC affiliate WGRZ to become "The Home of UB Athletics". The WGRZ deal isn't so much about major money changing hands as it is the school and station agreeing to cross-market. UB produces the coach's shows and games and WGRZ provides air-time.
This is the contract, just to give some idea of what SBU could request: http://cdn1.sbnation.com/assets/3888457/WGRZ_Agreement_UB_Athletics_2013-signed.pdf

Just this afternoon, Holy Cross announced an expanded schedule of home games for a Worchester-based indy channel owned by Charter Cable:
http://www.goholycross.com/sports/m-footbl/2013-14/releases/201405190wnxvq#.U3pMG67A9vY.twitter