Stony Brook Going I-A?

[JMU Duke Dog]

Here is an article I found from the CAAZone message boards:
http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/ny-spkorn064413728sep06,0,2071941.story

Stony Brook following the UConn model? :confused: I am originally from the southern part of the country and had never even heard of Stony Brook until seeing the name a few times on I-AA message boards. I had definitely heard of UConn when I was younger living down there.


Sam Kornhauser was there to help facilitate the Stony Brook University football program's move from what he called a "'Little House on the Prairie' field" to the Division II level in 1997 and to Division I-AA in 1999. In fact, Kornhauser is the only head coach the team has ever had.

But should SBU football make the transition to Division I-A, a desire of athletic director Jim Fiore, it will do so under new leadership. In a closed, post-practice meeting yesterday, Kornhauser announced to his players and coaches that 2005 will be his final season with the team.

Using the University of Connecticut as a model for a successful transition, Fiore spoke about Stony Brook's potential move to the I-A level. Although he provided no timetable for the move or for naming a new coach - "Right now we're going to focus on this team this year," he said - Fiore promised the search would be nationwide.

"We're young enough to grow with a guy," he said. "We need a guy who's going to kill himself ... recruiting and outworking people."

[youwouldno]

lol, wow that's a good one.

Albany will follow I imagine, and before the decade is out meet in the Rose Bowl.

[Mr. C]

:D :D :D

I can't help but snicker at this one. First some Northern Arizona and UC Davis guys are talking about their teams going I-A and now this. It ranks right up there with Delaware State announcing they were looking into going I-A. What's next, Prairie View, Texas Southern and Savannah State making the move to I-A? Let's get serious, folks.

[TxSt02]

:D :D :D

I can't help but snicker at this one. First some Northern Arizona and UC Davis guys are talking about their teams going I-A and now this. It ranks right up there with Delaware State announcing they were looking into going I-A. What's next, Prairie View, Texas Southern and Savannah State making the move to I-A? Let's get serious, folks.


You forgot about FAMU...

[TexasTerror]

Don't forget TxSt-San Marcos faithful making it habitual talking about I-A for ages when they haven't been to the playoffs in 20 years of I-AA football...

[henfan]

The article mentions Stony Brook's "potential move" to I-A much in the same way my wife and I discuss our 'potential home' in Malibu, CA.

[colgate13]

Where do schools find these ADs with ridiculous notions of grandeur? Apparently I should be applying for these positions!

[89Hen]

Where do schools find these ADs with ridiculous notions of grandeur?
Maybe it's an election year at Stony? :p

[Husky Alum]

I'm just going to cut and paste my post from the CAA board. Stony Brook's AD thinks he's the second coming of Theo Epstein.

Fiore wants to use the UConn model. One problem with Stony Brook is that as a founding member of the BE, UConn had the golden ticket, admission to the Big East Conference. There's a pig's chance of getting on a kosher buffet that SBU gets an invite to a BCS conference in the next 10 years.

One thing we all need to know about Stony Brook is they have a real young Athletic Director (Ted Fiore is his name, I believe) and the guy is full of p-iss and vinegar.

When he got the job he said that Stony Brook was going to be the "Evil Empire" of the America East, and would be the school that teams feared to play. The only thing most teams in the AE feared from a hoops standpoint was the travel to Long Island to play the Seawolves.

Fiore is incredibly dynamic and is a great person to work for (I have a friend on staff at SBU). He's got these visions of 50,000 people going to football games on Long Island, but I just can't see it happening without a conference affiliation.

Most AE AD's think Fiore is all sizzle and just a little steak, so I wouldn't go comparing them to Buffalo anytime soon. They need to worry about being the next Monmouth or Central Connecticut first.


_________________
Parsons Field.. be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
Tue Sep 06, 2005 11:54 pm

[Cocky]

Where is SB located? This is a serious question.

[Fordham]

Stony Brook, Long Island. It's pretty far out there ... a good 1-1/2 from NYC (~60 miles away), and that's if traffic is good ... which means it's really about 2 or 2-1/2 from NYC.

Stony Brook, LI (http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=home&address=&city=stony+brook&state=ny&zipcode=)

[Husky Alum]

Good luck getting there. You can fly Southwest into Islip/MacArthur Airport on Long Island and it's about an hour/90 minute drive to the school.

It's actually easier to get to Stony Brook by taking the ferry over from Connecticut.

It's a very good academic school (Top 100 in USNews and World Report's rankings), but has a reputation as being a bit of a commuter and research school.

[Reed Rothchild]

I wonder if he realizes that UCONN required purchasing football season tickets in order to get bball season tickets. I haven't heard of Stoney Brook being a basketball power with a serious demand for tickets

[Husky Alum]

Don't confuse Fiore's mind with facts, he's too busy dreaming up plans for his "Empire" on Long Island.

What Fiore doesn't also have is a state legislature with a corrupt governor (He's in jail now) willing to give land about 30 miles away from campus to build a stadium. The UConn stadium in West Hartford came about after Bob Kraft and the Patriots left the State of CT at the altar when they said they were moving to Hartford.

[TxSt02]

Stony Brook, Long Island. It's pretty far out there ... a good 1-1/2 from NYC (~60 miles away), and that's if traffic is good ... which means it's really about 2 or 2-1/2 from NYC.

Stony Brook, LI (http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=home&address=&city=stony+brook&state=ny&zipcode=)

Long Island = New Jersey hair and nails X 2.

[aceinthehole]

Don't confuse Fiore's mind with facts, he's too busy dreaming up plans for his "Empire" on Long Island.

What Fiore doesn't also have is a state legislature with a corrupt governor (He's in jail now) willing to give land about 30 miles away from campus to build a stadium. The UConn stadium in West Hartford came about after Bob Kraft and the Patriots left the State of CT at the altar when they said they were moving to Hartford.

Yes, the Conn. General Assemby did fork over about $92 million for construction of the 40,000 seat stadium. Yes, the original plan was for the Huskies to share a 75,000 seat stadium with the NFL's Patroits. But many people knew Kraft was using the offer from Conn. to get a better deal in Foxboro, where he wanted to stay all along (he owns the land there). However, in the end the crooked governor and the legislature full of Husky fans got their stadium anyway on the backs of all CT taxpayers.

But, the UConn stadium is in East Hartford acroos the river from downtown Hartford and is on land given to the state by United Technologies (huge US defense contractor). The land was part of the former Renchlear Field and was a private airport and manufacting plant. UT only needs part of the land do to the movement of many of their jobs out of Connecticut.

There is a host of other reasons why UConn's move is so doing so well, include a free stadium from CT taxpayers, BCS conference membership in the Big East, Huskymania from basketball fans, and a bunch of worthless, mindless politicians!

[colgate13]

so you're saying you have an opinion on this one ace? :D

[Go...gate]

Is that the same Ted Fiore who was the basketball coach at St. Peter's (NJ) College?

[NoCoDanny]

Long Island = New Jersey hair and nails X 2.

That's hot don't you think? Anyway, Texas chicks have the biggest hair of all don't they?

[UAalum72]

Is that the same Ted Fiore who was the basketball coach at St. Peter's (NJ) College?
No, this is Jim Fiore, played football at Hofstra, then was a suit in the athletic depts. of Fordham (intern), Dartmouth, and Princeton before Stony Brook.

[JMG1MON]

They should probably think about going to full scholarship (which I know several folks have stated is going to occur) before going to D-1a. I know Monmouth has aspirations of moving up in conference for all sports or dramatically improving the NEC. That said, they do not have the aspirations of jumping to D-1a. I do not really want a D-1a program at Monmouth, although a 1-aa program that is scholarship funded would be sweet. I do realise that this is several years from coming into fruition.

[sceagle]

If they started giving scholarships what conferences have room up there? As far as I know the A-10/CAA is full. Would the Patriot League be willing to consider them?

[Marcus Garvey]

If they started giving scholarships what conferences have room up there? As far as I know the A-10/CAA is full. Would the Patriot League be willing to consider them?

Only if they use the Patriot "model" of scholarships. If they went full-blown grants like most of the "scholarship" conferences do, the Patriot won't touch them.

[Husky Alum]

Since the New AE Commissioner is hell bent on AE Football, Monmouth would be welcomed with open arms to the AE if they went full scholarship. The AE only has 9 members and has a geographic void in New Jersey - there's nothing between Binghamton/Stony Brook and UMBC.

That would give the AE the following football schools:

Monmouth
Albany
SBU
Maine
UNH

Not far fetched to think they'd get URI on an affiliate basis - Boom, 6 teams - that's AE football.

[bluehenbillk]

Has there been a team to make a jump directly from D-3 to 1-A?

[colgate13]

If they started giving scholarships what conferences have room up there? As far as I know the A-10/CAA is full. Would the Patriot League be willing to consider them?

The Patriot wouldn't touch Stony Brook with a 10 foot pole.

[TxSt02]

Has there been a team to make a jump directly from D-3 to 1-A?

None that I can think of but what did USF and UAB do??? I think they both had club teams and then made the jump.

Something tells me that UAB went from club to D-III to I-A

[TxSt02]

That's hot don't you think? Anyway, Texas chicks have the biggest hair of all don't they?

That was Dallas in the 80's...

[ucdtim17]

:D :D :D

I can't help but snicker at this one. First some Northern Arizona and UC Davis guys are talking about their teams going I-A and now this. It ranks right up there with Delaware State announcing they were looking into going I-A. What's next, Prairie View, Texas Southern and Savannah State making the move to I-A? Let's get serious, folks.


Hey don't lump Davis in with those schools. As people mentioned in the other thread, UCD is the largest school in I-AA and will have one of the, if not the biggest budget, when we complete the transition (26 sports). I brought it up because it's obvious II and non-BSC I-AA in the west is dying. What are our options if/when the GWFC dies? I-AA independent or I-A independent? I-A independent makes a lot more sense than staying in I-AA and flying all over the country to put together a schedule

[UAalum72]

Has there been a team to make a jump directly from D-3 to 1-A?
You can't now, it's a five-year process to become a Division I university - which Stony Brook is. And SBU is I-AA, no matter what you think they 'really' are.

Given the requirement for a minimum of 76 scholarships for football, it would likely take SBU three years to add enough to the equivalencies they have now, let alone stadium, attendance, other sports, and support issues.

Buffalo was D-III from 1977-88, became D-I in 1994 and moved football to I-A in 1999.

Fiore took abuse on the conference boards last winter when he said he wanted to make Stony Brook the 'Evil Empire' of America East as he launched a department-wide purge of the coaching staffs.

[bkrownd]

Stony Brook should limit their big-time sports ambitions to lacrosse.

[henfan]

I-A independent makes a lot more sense than staying in I-AA and flying all over the country to put together a schedule

Q: What do you think an I-A indy UCD would be doing?
A: Flying all over the country to put together a schedule and playing a lot of 2 or 3-for-1's.

Consider as well that, without a I-A conference, UCD would have not likely be able to land a BCS invite, it would have little if any access to any post-season bowl, its players would not have a shot at all-conference honors, ect.