Together We Transform Thursday – January 23, 2025

Crystal Ball

With the holidays in the rearview mirror and our journey into 2025 well on its way, our department is gearing up for a year that will undoubtedly prove to be one of the most pivotal in the history of college athletics. 

Not only are we preparing for massive changes that will forever change the way that Division I is governed, but we are also anticipating the forthcoming announcement of Stony Brook's next president. I was grateful for the opportunity to meet with each of the finalists during their on-campus interviews, and I look forward to working with our new leader to help shape the future of our program. 

While we eagerly await the news regarding our new president, we are planning for sweeping changes across the NCAA resulting from a landmark settlement that is expected to be finalized on April 7.

Last week I attended the NCAA Convention in Nashville and participated in the meeting of the Division I Council. We covered a wide range of topics, including the proposed House settlement, potential changes to the length of eligibility for student-athletes and a new decision-making structure for Division I.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the House settlement, which was the result of three class action lawsuits in which college athletes argued that they were denied the chance to earn NIL money, allow me to share the most pertinent pieces in the simplest possible terms:

• NIL and revenue sharing
  • For the first time in history, schools will be able to provide NIL payments and share revenues directly with student-athletes.
• Roster limits and scholarship impact
  • Current scholarship limits for each sport will be replaced by roster limits, meaning an institution will be able to offer a full scholarship to any student-athlete on a given roster.
• Back pay 
  • All Division I student-athletes who competed from 2016 to the present are eligible for payments based upon a negotiated formula. This back pay will be funded by all Division I conferences and will result in a decrease in annual distributions to each institution, including Stony Brook.

Obviously there is much more detail involved as it relates to the settlement, and I will speak more broadly in the very near future about how we intend to manage our department in the wake of these changes. I can tell you that we've been preparing for months and intend to establish a course for our department that will position us for success while adapting to the new definition of Division I.
 
Stay tuned because this is only the beginning of what will be an eventful 2025…

Big Basketball Weekend

Beginning tonight and continuing through Sunday, we will host four consecutive basketball games inside Stony Brook Arena.

It starts tonight when our men's team hosts Campbell at 7 pm. This has been a tough year thus far for the guys but we need the support of our home crowd to help propel them to a win. Junior C.J. Luster, one of our many newcomers to the team, has been a huge bright spot leading the team in scoring (14.3 points per game), three-point percentage (41.4 percent), free throw percentage (86.6 percent) and steals (20).

Friday night will feature the women in action against Northeastern at 6:30 pm. It will mark the first home game for the women since the team's thrilling 87-83 overtime win against Charleston on January 12. Senior Zaida Gonzalez, who scored a career-best 37 points in that game, is averaging 25.7 points over her last three contests.

On Saturday, the men are back for a noon tipoff against North Carolina A&T as we host our annual Stony Brook Children's Hospital game. It is one of my favorite partnerships as it demonstrates the power of sports at Stony Brook. As is tradition, our players will wear jerseys that feature the names of hospital patients on the back. After the game, the players meet the patients and their families to present the jerseys. 

Our basketball weekend will be capped on Sunday when the women welcome Campbell at 1 pm for National Girls and Women in Sports Day. As part of the festivities, our student-athletes will host a sold-out youth clinic before the game that is always one of the best examples of community engagement.

Get your tickets for any or all of this weekend's games, and let's get some wins this weekend!

On Deck: Meeting of the CAA Board of Directors and ADs  

President McCormick and I will be on the campus of Hofstra next week to join the presidents and athletic directors of the CAA for two days of meetings. This annual gathering is the one opportunity for this group to come together in person to discuss critical issues for the conference.

The major topic of conversation will be the House settlement and how we move forward as a league. As a group of athletic directors, we have held weekly calls to discuss the new NCAA landscape and will present our recommendations to the presidents next week. I expect there to be a robust dialogue among the presidents and ADs, and it is imperative that we are resolute in how to best position the CAA – and Stony Brook – for success.

Winter Sports Competing, Spring Teams Return

The sound of our student-athletes in our building is always music to my ears, and I'm so happy to have our spring teams back as they prepare for their upcoming seasons. Classes resume next week for the start of the spring semester so our campus will be alive once again as all of our student-athletes return along with the general student body.

Our winter teams – basketball, indoor track and field, and swimming and diving – are in full swing so I'm excited to see how we compete down the home stretch. 

Proud AD Alert: Student-Athletes Crush it in the Classroom!

I am very happy to report that our student-athletes earned the highest term GPA – 3.31 for Fall 2024 – in our history outside of the COVID semester of Spring 2020.

This is an incredible testament to the work of our student-athletes and academic support team. Academic success is a core component of our mission to positively transform the life of each student-athlete, and I couldn't be prouder. An impressive 329 out of our 436 total student-athletes earned a 3.0 or above with 117 earning a 3.7 or higher.

I'd like to give a special shoutout to Tennis for earning the highest team GPA with a 3.75.  

Thank you for your continued support of Stony Brook Athletics. We've got a huge task ahead in 2025, but we're poised and prepared to face it head on!

Keep believing!  


Shawn