GREG LOGAN, Newsday
TAMPA, Fla. - First South Florida, and then the world of big-time college football. At least, that's the vision of Stony Brook AD (for "Advanced Dreamer'') Jim Fiore.
The Seawolves' first football game against a Division I-A school from a BCS conference Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium is the first big step up in Fiore's long-term plan to grow a major-college football program. It's a big deal for Stony Brook to take on South Florida, a Big East school that has gone to five straight bowl games and defeated such major powers as Florida State and West Virginia last season.
"I think it's OK to dream,'' said Fiore, who took over as SBU's athletic director in 2003. "Seven years ago, we were playing St. John's, Siena and Iona, and none of them has football anymore. Now we're playing UMass, South Florida, Boston College, Army. So who's to say that in 'X' amount of years we're not going to be lacing up and beating those institutions and maybe having them come ?''
Actually, Massachusetts of the Colonial Athletic Association does visit Stony Brook in three weeks. Road dates at Boston College and Army are on future Stony Brook schedules. "We're looking at playing two games per year against schools from higher levels starting next year,'' Fiore said.
Although SBU earlier this week announced an extension of its agreement to play football in the Big South Conference through the 2015 season, that really is a marriage of convenience. The Big South gave the Seawolves a place to play football while remaining in the America East for all other sports, and Stony Brook gave the Big South enough teams to gain an automatic berth in the Division I-AA playoffs.
But Fiore sees bigger things ahead for the Seawolves. In a sense, he wants athletics to catch up to academics at Stony Brook, which is a member of the American Association of Universities, and that means aligning SBU with other major research institutions.
"When the Big Ten started talking expansion, I think there were a lot of influential people in and around the Stony Brook campus who said, 'Wow, if we were 25 or 30 years down the road, what an opportunity that would have been,' '' Fiore said. "Put a I-A football team here, put a committed state athletic program here, and now the Big Ten is looking to expand and we're right there. I really believe that because academically, we're right there.''
Stony Brook in the Big Ten? That's a mind-bending stretch. But there's opportunity to evolve in the NCAA's changing athletic landscape.
Playing in the Big South makes no geographical sense. But what if East Coast schools such as Maine, New Hampshire, UMass, Fordham, Villanova, Delaware and possibly Towson, Albany and Central Connecticut got together with Stony Brook to form their own Football Championship Series (FCS) conference to take part in the I-AA playoffs?
"If a situation presented itself to be in a high-level conference and to be financially efficient with more conducive travel, that certainly would be of interest,'' Fiore said.
An eventual jump by Stony Brook to Division I-A would require LaValle Stadium expansion to a minimum of 30,000 seats, which might be a tough sell in an area dominated by professional teams. Fiore's challenge is building a fan base for intercollegiate athletics on Long Island and positioning the Seawolves for the future.
"My job is to set us up for the next 25 or 30 years, not for the next two years,'' Fiore said. "Where are we going to be when we look back in 2030? If you look 50 years from now, there's no doubt we're going to be there.''
