MITCHELL HORUCY
Asst. Sports Editor
After a 64-year run, Brockport and Geneseo will leave the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) following the 2023-24 academic year.
Announced in August of 2023, The Golden Eagles and Knights will be the 10th and 11th teams to join the Empire 8 conference.
Despite moving conferences, the two schools will continue to compete at the Division III level.
After discussing the move with Brockport Associate Athletic Director (AD) Gil Burgmaster and Geneseo Director of Athletics and Recreation Dani Drews, they both had one main reason for the move: travel.
“The cost of travel has tripled in the past five years. It’s crushing and we just can’t sustain that,” said Drews.
After joining the Empire 8, six teams in the conference will be within 60 miles of Geneseo’s campus.
While in the SUNYAC, there were only two schools within 90 miles of the school.
Drews also talked about the stress that travel can put on student-athletes, and even coaches.
She talked about the trips to schools such as New Paltz and Plattsburgh, which are both over 250 miles.
Geneseo did research within their institution, leading them to learn that the biggest stressor for students, not just athletes, is academics.
“Having them be so far away from campus for so long, they’re traveling, they can’t do the work, the research, the things that they need to do,” said Drews.
As well as student-athletes, the coaches were also a big reason Geneseo made the move, according to Drews.
“We have a lot of coaches with young families,” she said. “It’s hard to be away for so long.”
She also added that aside from a few trips, all of their travel will be under an hour and a half.
Burgmaster had similar things to say, mentioning that this is a great opportunity for Brockport to play teams that are more in their area of New York.
Burgmaster and Drews said that this decision has been in the works for a while.
With many Empire 8 schools in the area of both Geneseo and Brockport, both schools have played against the opposing schools for a long time.
Brockport is actually a member of the Empire 8 for football and has been since 2014.
After Geneseo and Brockport officially join the conference, they’ll be the only public schools in the conference. While both Burgmaster and Drews aren’t worried about that difference, Drews did mention the change in public schools over the years.
“There’s a real misconception about the kind of resources that state universities have … Maybe 15-20 years ago, there was a discrepancy, you know, big facilities, we had maybe more resources. It’s really not the case anymore,” said Drews.
She also mentioned the declining enrollment in SUNY schools, including Fredonia and Geneseo.
“Because of the declining enrollment, athletics are directly impacted, as we’re funded by the fee,” said Drews, referring to the athletics fee that students pay.
As this pertains to Fredonia, not much will change.
Burgmaster and Drews said they plan to continue the SUNYAC rivalries with closer schools such as Fredonia and Buffalo State.
“There’s always good relationships that you build with other schools over the years and especially ones that are in your relative area,” said Burgmaster.
Drews also talked about the relationships between schools that have been built throughout the conference’s 66-year existence.
“There’s so many decades of great rivalries and experience and we definitely want to continue that,” said Drews.
Despite the SUNYAC losing two schools following the academic year, SUNY Canton and SUNY Morrisville plan to join the conference in the fall.
For conference realignment as a whole, it mostly refers to what’s going on at the Division-I level.
For example, the University of Oregon is one of 10 teams leveling the Pac-12 conference after this academic year.
Oregon has been a part of the conference since its beginning in 1915.
When asked about the correlation between what’s going on at the Division I level and Division III, Drews said it’s a much different situation.
The difference: money.
“I think honestly, Division III, everything is driven by trying to save money, save resources,” said Drews.
However, this isn’t the case at the highest level.
“They’re [Division I schools] talking about billions of dollars, how do we capture those media rights and that kind of money? So I think it was probably financially driven, but not in the same way that Division III is,” said Drews.
She also mentioned that the travel situation between the two is completely opposite.
In the case of Brockport and Geneseo changing conferences, it was to make travel easier for student-athletes. While in the case of a lot of the Division-I conference changes, it makes travel worse.
Drews mentioned Stanford University, another Pac-12 school leaving the conference. Stanford will be joining the Atlantic Coast Conference, or ACC. Schools in this conference include North Carolina, Virginia, Miami and Boston College.
She thinks it’s not fair for the athletes to have to travel 10,000+ miles for a game.
The changes many are seeing in college sports have made their way to us in SUNYAC sports.