OPINION: The SUNYAC is Dead, and Outsiders Killed It

OSWEGO, N.Y. – April 10, 2024 was the beginning of the end. That day SUNYAC Commissioner Tom DiCamillo announced that Hobart College and Skidmore College would be joining the SUNYAC Men’s Ice Hockey Conference. It was a decision on the recommendation of the SUNYAC Board of Directors, which consists of the athletic directors from all SUNYAC members, and it was approved by the SUNYAC Presidents Council, which consists of all the presidents of member schools and is chaired by Alberto Cardelle, president of SUNY Oneonta. 

There are a few problems with the above statement, so let’s break it down.  

“SUNYAC Commissioner Tom DiCamillo”

The very commissioner of the SUNYAC is not a product of the SUNY system, nor even the state of New York. He graduated from West Chester University of Pennsylvania with an undergraduate degree in liberal arts, and an MSA in Sports Administration. He had to go back for that second one nearly 15 years after his undergraduate, by the way. West Chester University is also not an NCAA Div. III school, it’s a Div. II school. After this, he spent most of his career way out on the west coast, until joining the SUNYAC as their commissioner. 

Now, my question is, what does a guy who isn’t a product of SUNY, NCAA Div. III, or have anything even to do with the state of New York, know about the SUNYAC and its intricacies? Two representatives of the SUNYAC were competing for an Ice Hockey National Championship (1987) before he even graduated from college the first time (1989). There is more lore and depth to this conference than many people think, and I’m only touching the hockey side of it. The basketball side of the SUNYAC goes even further back than hockey. 

“Hobart College and Skidmore College would be joining the SUNYAC Men’s Ice Hockey conference”

Let’s move on to the second point of contention, and the main one for many people; Hobart College and Skidmore College joining the SUNYAC. The full names of those colleges are what I just said. No prefix, no nothing. Yes, the pedantic ones out there would point out my omission of William Smith College as the feminine counterpart to the male institution that is Hobart College, but we’re mainly talking about the men’s hockey side for this argument. 

I will remind you readers as to what SUNYAC stands for. State University of New York Athletic Conference. The first two words are in my opinion the most important of that acronym. “State University.” Hobart and Skidmore are both in New York, and they both have athletics, but they are not State Universities. They are privately owned and operated institutions. Their income and tuition is much higher than those of the SUNY system, and their abilities to give out scholarships reflect that. 

For example, SUNY Oswego’s men’s hockey team has only two nations represented as part of their roster; the United States and Canada. Hobart College’s men’s hockey team roster however, has seven nations represented on their roster; the two aforementioned, in addition to Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Belarus, and Hungary. Now how would a school in the SUNY system be able to afford talent coming from 4000+ miles away to play for a Div. III hockey program?

The SUNYAC was created to provide a balanced athletics conference for all members of the SUNY system to participate in, instead of fending for themselves in conferences where there could be a significant imbalance between the participants. In spite of there being larger SUNY universities, they have kept this balance by registering bigger schools like University of Buffalo and Stony Brook into NCAA Division I athletics, instead of them punking on every smaller SUNY school that belongs to Div. III. The SUNYAC was made for a purpose, and it was harmonious and competitive within itself. That’s all it needed to be, and it did its job very well. 

“It was a decision on the recommendation of the SUNYAC Board of Directors, which consists of the athletic directors from all SUNYAC members”

Moving on to the issue of the Board of Directors. It consists of all of the Athletic Directors of full members of the SUNYAC. This includes all of the SUNY members of the Men’s hockey conference, and two which are outliers. Those being SUNY Oneonta and SUNY New Paltz. These two colleges notably do not have hockey programs. Why then, should they be able to vote on a decision that does not directly affect them? What’s even more egregious is that New Paltz made that decision in April of 2024, then just months later in July, announced their departure from the SUNYAC to join the NJAC! If they had every intention of ditching the very athletic conference that bore their prefix, why were they able to vote on this?

“…approved by the SUNYAC Presidents Council, which consists of all the presidents of member schools and is chaired by Alberto Cardelle, president of SUNY Oneonta.”

Lastly, the issue of Oneonta. The chair of the SUNYAC presidents council is none other than Alberto Cardelle, the president of SUNY Oneonta, a school without a hockey team. Like Tom DiCamillo, he is not a product of the SUNY system or of the state of New York. He’s from Miami, Florida, and has degrees from Tulane, Boston University, and UMiami, all private institutions. It was his council that approved the move to allow Hobart College and Skidmore College to join, a decision that didn’t affect his school. By the way, when you search Alberto Cardelle in Google, his primary title comes up as “Author.”

Where Do We Go From Here?

“So what now? Are Hobart and Skidmore permanent members of the SUNYAC?” According to the conference’s current bylaws, yes. There is currently no precedent for a member school, associate or full member, getting kicked out of the SUNYAC by the conference itself. All of the departures and changes have been of schools’ own accord. When SUNY Brockport and SUNY Geneseo left the SUNYAC a few years ago to join the Empire 8 conference, it was of their own accord and decision. When New Paltz leaves for the NJAC in the fall, it will have been of their own accord. 

In my humble opinion, the above events have signaled the death of the SUNYAC as it has been known for the past half-century. No longer is it the SUNY system duking it out against each other to see which school is the best. It has now become the very thing it swore to destroy; a lopsided, public/private mixed conference in which the private schools prevail over the public, as shown by Hobart College’s taking of the SUNYAC Men’s Hockey title this past season. 

The SUNYAC is dead. Long live the SUNYAC.