Seawolves Fans

Why would Stony Brook want to associate itself with lowly schools like CCSU?

Stony Brook is too good and popular of a school to be in the same conference as New Hampshire, Maine, UMass Lowell, NJIT, and (formerly) Hartford, which if I didn't follow the America East, I would have assumed those were all D2/D3 schools. If you told me when I was a student here at Stony Brook back in the early 2010s that in 10 years, we would still be in this conference, I would have laughed.

I don't mind the flagship state schools in New England. Nothing wrong with Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. But when you start going down to UMass Lowell, NJIT, and Hartford it does bother me a little bit as it doesn't feel like a natural fit for Stony Brook

UConn, UMass, and Rutgers would be more natural fit in those states.

But we also need to realize where we come from to understand better why we are here. Stony Brook was founded in 1957 which is very recent relative to other northern universities. It grew very quickly and gained a strong academic reputation in just a few decades. But we only joined Division I in the late 90s. We joined the party late and the pecking order in athletics was already established. We are also a victim of our geographic location. The appetite for college sports in the Northeast is not the same as down south. A school like Central Florida which was founded after Stony Brook was able to climb the college athletics ranks much faster - But Florida is a huge market for college sports. Even a directional school like UCF can draw 40k football crowds in a state where UF/FSU draw 80k crowds

For Stony Brook the road will definitely be a much longer one. Our best bet is for us to continue to support our alma mater and hopefully some day it achieves critical mass. Maybe we win a big game in the NCAAs in the future which catapults us into a better league/draws more fans. For now I say we should continue doing things right - invest in facilities, run a clean program, compete in all sports, strive to be the best in the America East until those days come.

Massive shakeup in the Big 12 over the last few hours. Texas an Oklahoma are on the out. They're talking to the SEC and likely the Pac-12 and Big Ten as well. That league literally just imploded over the course of a few hours.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/big-12-powers-texas-oklahoma-inquire-about-joining-sec-in-potentially-massive-realignment-shakeup/

https://twitter.com/jasonwhitely/status/1418041621820579841?s=21


Normally realignment trickles down all the way to the FCS in one form or another. This time though, I don't see it impacting SBU in any meaningful way. Heilbron has failed to make us an an attractive candidate for an FBS conference. We're stuck here. This may get JMU a spot somewhere though, so my prediction about them being gone soon stands.

The article says the Big12 has to vote on allowing Texas and Oklahoma to depart, and it is not looking likely that they will be granted leave.

Quote from: VA_Seawolf on July 22, 2021, 02:24:13 am

Massive shakeup in the Big 12 over the last few hours. Texas an Oklahoma are on the out. They're talking to the SEC and likely the Pac-12 and Big Ten as well. That league literally just imploded over the course of a few hours.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/big-12-powers-texas-oklahoma-inquire-about-joining-sec-in-potentially-massive-realignment-shakeup/

https://twitter.com/jasonwhitely/status/1418041621820579841?s=21


Normally realignment trickles down all the way to the FCS in one form or another. This time though, I don't see it impacting SBU in any meaningful way. Heilbron has failed to make us an an attractive candidate for an FBS conference. We're stuck here. This may get JMU a spot somewhere though, so my prediction about them being gone soon stands.

The article says the Big12 has to vote on allowing Texas and Oklahoma to depart, and it is not looking likely that they will be granted leave.

That's if they leave before the GOR ends in 2025. If they don't want to give up any money, they can simply wait out the GOR and then move to the SEC/wherever. The Big 12 was always Texas, OU, and then everyone else. If those two leave, the rest of the league is AAC tier at best. I think it's a done deal they move at this point, only question is where. I fully expect the Pac-12 and Big Ten to go all out to get Texas and/or OU as well. SEC would be crazy lucrative, but you have A&M, Missouri, Vanderbilt, and potentially others who may attempt to block the move.

I think a big driver for this is the new laws that let players make money off their name and likeness. The Alabama QB already has a million in endorsement deals. Way more money in that kind of thing if you're in the SEC compared to the Big 12. Money driving realignment as it always has.

I just hope the whole system implodes.

that we start from scratch with a new system of amateurism where coaching salaries are severely capped, where student-athletes are truly student-athlete and not semi-professionals, and where resources are allocated on somewhat fairer basis or returned back to the academic mission of the university. TV revenues should be shared by all members to keep a competitive balance and conferences should be limited to 8 members in regional geographic footprints.

I'm so tired of this current system.

same, spot on.  its really been getting worse over the past 20 years.  i think the golden age was maybe the 80s when you could flip on national channels and see MJ, montana to rice, gretzky, elway, magic, bird, dan marino, etc. and you had to wait until the next paper came out for scores/stats.

the NBA back then was amazing.  no zone defense, so it was all 1v1 (though, zone is what i love about the college game).  every team had a star worth watching, or a duo. 

wilkins, ewing, jordan/pippen, robinson, barkley, johnson, kemp, bird, malone, malone/stockton, olajuwon, drexler, worthy, miller/smits, isaiah/rodman, etc.  heck throw in derek harper and danny manning for good measure.

i thought a few years back we had a resurfacing of this with exciting players like griffin, durant, but the NBA just got unwatchable for me.

i agree there is always fallout and that JMU is headed for 1A. 

however, how do you get there logically?  what about the Big12 departures gives JMU the window to move?  Unless you mean to the Big12 perhaps??? 

or perhaps your prediction (which i very much appreciate) is that there'll be so much other movement in between FBS and FCS that there'll be openings somehwere... thanks.

Quote from: Chairman of the Board on July 26, 2021, 12:49:32 pm

i agree there is always fallout and that JMU is headed for 1A. 

however, how do you get there logically?  what about the Big12 departures gives JMU the window to move?  Unless you mean to the Big12 perhaps??? 

or perhaps your prediction (which i very much appreciate) is that there'll be so much other movement in between FBS and FCS that there'll be openings somehwere... thanks.

JMU is looking for an invite to the AAC. That's what they're waiting on. Bourne doesn't want to be an Independent, and he turned down a C-USA offer a few years ago. Now the Dukes have no chance, as it currently stands, to get an AAC offer, but if there were to be a massive shakeup of the BIG 12 post OU and Texas departures, with some AAC team gaining invites to the BIG 12, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for maybe, JMU to receive an offer. Now that's a long shot. And no, SBU will not receive an FBS offer until the team show consistency on the field for more than two seasons, upgrades the stadium and not just seating capacity, builds legitimate lockerrooms for both home and away teams, upgrades the press box, adds real suites, and much more. It won't happen because the school doesn't have the money for the upgrades or the coaching staff to pull it off.

"And no, SBU will not receive an FBS offer until the team show consistency on the field for more than two seasons, upgrades the stadium and not just seating capacity, builds legitimate lockerrooms for both home and away teams, upgrades the press box, adds real suites, and much more. It won't happen because the school doesn't have the money for the upgrades or the coaching staff to pull it off."

You beat me to AirTurn. SB is regressing when it comes to sports. SH needs to go. I like the man as a person. He is very nice, polite, smart, witty, but he doesn't have what it takes to make SBU a proven, respected athletic school.