By Collin Bolebruch
When New Paltz declared its departure from the SUNYAC, the first thing I thought of was women’s tennis. The Hawks — the team that just won the baseball, softball and both basketball championships — leave conference tennis in a dire state.
New Paltz has won five of the last six tennis championships and has not finished worse than second since 2002.
This season, there are six teams and four playoff spots. Next season, five programs — Plattsburgh, Fredonia, Oswego, Cortland and Oneonta — will fight for four playoff berths. Just one unfortunate team will be left out of the spring postseason in 2026.
My concern is that such a level of competition is not sustainable. If it’s harder to miss the playoffs than make them, why is there a regular season, especially if the title is played at a neutral site?
The conference must seek expansion, even if it means breaking the identity of the SUNYAC. It owes it to the players for there to be a meaningful season.
A small league is possible, as seen by the SUNYAC’s seven-team field hockey league that has operated for decades. However, next year, it will be reduced to four. In response, the SUNYAC is adding Salisbury University. Salisbury is located in Maryland, making it the first-ever non-New York SUNYAC team.
That wasn’t the only precedent broken this offseason — Hobart & William Smith and Skidmore College will join the SUNYAC’s ice hockey leagues, making them the first private colleges admitted to the conference.
The league could seek to lure teams that are already affiliate SUNYAC members — Ithaca, St. John Fisher, Alfred State, Utica, Skidmore, William Smith, SUNY Delhi and RIT. However, most seem comfortably seated within the Empire 8 — the league Geneseo and Brockport fled to — and the Liberty League. Delhi stands out.
Delhi competes in the North Atlantic Conference, the same league the SUNYAC just stole Canton and Morrisville from. Delhi has joined the SUNYAC in track and field, a sport the school excels at.
It could be easy for Delhi to make the jump to women’s tennis or even full-time membership. The NAC requires Delhi to make trips to Maine and Massachusetts, and the school could make easy cuts to travel with a conference jump. Delhi is the strong favorite, in my opinion.
However, the problem with adding the Delhi Broncos is the lack of experience the program holds. The team ceased play in 2020 and is now competing for the first time in five years. Is it a safe, stable option? The precedent and location of the school may outweigh that point. Joining the SUNYAC also may strengthen the program.
It is important to note that the Broncos scheduled two SUNYAC teams this season — losing 0-9 to Oswego on Sept. 4 and rescheduling a game at Plattsburgh.
Two more NAC members — VTSU-Johnson and VTSU-Lyndon — make for possible candidates. Plattsburgh already regularly plays VTSU-Johnson in tennis. The Cardinals also play VTSU-Johnson and VTSU-Lyndon in other sports as well. The schools’ distance from other members, such as Cortland and Oneonta, raises its biggest obstacle for full-league membership.
Outside of Delhi, the options lie completely up to opportunity. The SUNYAC could get lucky and pry away VTSU-Castleton, a common Plattsburgh opponent, from the Little East, or an Empire 8 or Liberty League school.
The best choices will possibly be schools looking for a change in Massachusetts, New Jersey, or even more likely, Pennsylvania, which sits just minutes away from the tournament’s site in Binghamton, New York.
My prediction is that the SUNYAC will add SUNY Delhi or one or two teams of public or private Pennsylvania schools, bringing the league count to six or seven. Alfred State also stands as an outlier option.
