Gents, I just don't feel that level of abject pessimism.
Will we become the next Ohio State? Unlikely. However, the schools that are dropping have a lot of intrinsic problems beyond athletics. The college world has changed as pricing has soared and debt becomes more expensive. People can't go to small lib arts or parochial colleges to earn degrees that don't make money anymore.
Stony Brook, in contrast, is a large state that is VERY good at subfields that do earn a lot of money. It is an AAU school with a growing endowment and a ton going for it. While we may be disappointed at times by athletics, I would argue that the University as a whole has never been stronger.
We have an athletics image problem. That is absolutely fixable but takes time. I've learned about that a lot through my career. I work for a large health system in NY. It was largely considered a Bronx hospital that caters to inner city medicaid (which it does, and should). However, it now owns several hospitals in Westchester and Rockland counties that are in much more affluent areas. Even with this expanded offering, the admin here fully gets that it takes a good decade to overhaul an image, almost a generational commitment. It's slowly changing, but even if the care is better - perception is 9/10's of reality.
Stony Brook is the same. Pikiell worked on this place for nearly a decade and made notable progress. That shows that it is possible with real commitment. We have backslid since the 2010's, when Stanley had an athletic interest and Pikiell knew how to market it. Part of that is the quality of the product on the court, and I don't like our coaching staff. Hopefully football taught Heilbron how important the right coach is in this portal environment. However, as football taught us, 1 season can change the product pretty drastically, and multiple seasons help that image change happen.
There is NO danger of us dropping D1. Not even a mild one. We're just not going to. I even expect us to make another conference move once the dust settles from NIL and the related lawsuits. If the admin wants to really push the image, they have to start a 10 year plan to do so, and accept that dividends won't really be paid until the end of that plan.
Really good points here. I share your optimism for SBU's potential, and I don't fear that we'll suffer the same fate as a Saint Francis. I do worry about our ability to recruit and retain talent when we are significantly behind the top NIL funds/endowments in our own conference. I'm hopeful that will change, but it will take a new level of commitment and a fresh vision from leadership.
More globally, I am very glad that college athletes are being compensated for the significant value they bring to their schools. I do lament the haphazard way NIL was implemented after the Supreme Court forced the NCAA's hand in 2020. It has completely shifted the landscape, and we still have no idea where it will settle. It did not start with any strategy, design, or structure, so I think we're all just waiting for a train with no breaks to eventually come to rest.
Will a Cinderella make a multi-round run in March Madness ever again? Will my son be able to root for his favorite Seawolf for multiple years in the future? Will the 'Bamas and Georgias and Texases break off completely from the NCAA and make an independently-governed super conference?
I've always loved college sports way more than professional. Increasingly, it's hard to tell the difference. Maybe I just need to go with the flow, but I also don't want to see things lost that make college sports special.
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