Best SUNY school for runnning?

It may depend on what you want to major in but my sister ran for Geneseo and enjoyed the experience.

Best team is undoubtedly Stony Brook. Binghamton is somewhat close, but Dan Schaffer kinda carries distance and I think he's graduating. Stony Brook also happens to be one of the most depressing campuses I have ever been on. Campus is pretty dead on weekends as 50% of the students commute.

Geneseo is a D3 with a somewhat comparable program. Much bigger team with people at all levels. Their top guys would be up their with Stony Brook and Binghamton besides Shaffer (47, 1:51, 3:44, 14:11, etc) but it would probably be a bit easier to make their travel squad for XC. Culture is also pretty great from what I've heard. They sent out like 50 people to watch xc Nats in Louisville.

Not sure what level you're at or what you want to major in, but these are probably the three best options.

I like Stony Brook, but Long Island is pretty unappealing in terms of area. I would be able to walk on at any SUNY, but looking at the D1's and better D3's like Geneseo. What about Albany and Buffalo?

I admittedly don't know too much about either teams besides what's on TFRRS. Albany's distance program looks very bleak with only two people racing the 5k (14:40 and 14:44). It looks like they have one notable guy (1:51, 3:50) but not much else. They didn't have enough people on their xc team to even score at Regionals.

Buffalo is a pretty comparable team to Binghamton or Geneseo. Finished one spot behind Bing at XC Regionals. Decently sized team with solid people in most events (4 under 3:53, 6 under 1:55, 14:12 with some mid 14 runners). I'm sure I don't need to tell you this though, but the winters are pretty brutal, Not like Geneseo and Bing are 60 and sunny year round, but Buffalo definitely the worst.

To make a small list I would say Stony Brook, Bing, Buffalo, and Geneseo are all a good start. You're allowed 5 official D1 visits, so maybe email the coaches and see about setting that up. You can find all the information you want online, but you won't get a real feel until you talk with the coach, visit the school, and meet with the team. I know people who run for Geneseo and Stony Brook (and talked somewhat extensively with the SB coach), but really that is all the insight I have.

The schools really aren't too comparable. You may want to consider the school based on the strongest programs offered and campus vibe you're looking for.

Geneseo is a small and more of a education/liberal arts focused school. Very small town, near some great parks and areas to run (Letchworth State Park is very nice). The campus has a very small town rural vibe (but it's not terribly far from either Buffalo or Rochester). Geneseo has been great at developing XC/track talent at the DIII level. I don't know the stats, but I suspect they've sent more guys to the marathon OTQ than any of the other SUNYs.

Buffalo is a large research university, and would probably be the best fit for someone looking to major in the hard sciences, engineering or similar fields. Buffalo is the only SUNY D1-FBS school (competes in the MAC) if that's your thing. Buffalo's campus is the most "urban" of the school's you've listed (it actually has two campuses). I will withhold comment about its XC/track programs and how talent is developed, but you can see the results for yourself.

Albany is more of a mid-sized university, competing in the American East Conference. The campus has a suburban feel. It offers very strong government/poli sci programs. Its XC program generally falls in the bottom half of the American East.

^ hotmails is right. When I said the programs were comparable I meant only in terms of track and xc results, not the other things offered. You didn't mention anything about what you were looking for so I just wanted to provide insight on what I could. What is good is that since the schools themselves are pretty different, that might do some of the narrowing down for you.

To be fair to the brook

Most of the SUNY schools have pretty depressing camouses

Albany T&F is a pretty awesome experience. Program is well funded, lots of travel for meets for a mid-major (all the big relay meets, Stanford, Puerto Rico, etc.). Jones is a good coach, just doesn't have scholarship money. School is decent, definitely better SUNY's out there in terms of the academic side.

Geneseo or Stony Brook. Buffalo is a great school has some of the worst development for distance runners. They have had good recruiting only to squander it.

As a previous poster stated, you need to visit the schools. Many SUNY schools are not appealing. My son disliked just about every SUNY campus he visited.

Run the financial aid calculators on some of the private school websites just to be sure you aren't eligible for financial that would make the cost comparable to a SUNY. St. Lawrence for instance is a beautiful campus with a great running culture and has a lot of need based aid available. If none of the privates work financially I second the recommendation for Geneseo - a great running program, and you get to compete for championships rather than 6th place in the America East.

Bing, Stony Brook, Buffalo if u wanna go D1. Bing probably won't be as good next year but if u r a top runner there u will be a pro(Eric Holt, Jesse Garn, Dan Schaffer)but Stony Brook had a few regional qualifiers these past few years but campus life is kinda boring. Albany is decent and travels more but distance isn't great.

And yes Geneseo is the best D3 option and can confirm that they have a great team culture. They operate like a D1 program and graduate some good guys.

Albany alumn here.

Albany has the best track and field program of the SUNY schools, hands down, but their depth at the longer distances is limited.

That being said, they have picked up a few good mid-distance recruits for next year (twin brothers who have run 1:50 and 1:51 as well as a third guy who has run 1:51).

They also have a great distance coach in Matt Jones. I was before his time, but I have seen him develop some talent over his time there (they had a woman win xc regionals, they put their first guy under 30:00 in the 10,000, and they had two other guys get under 14:20 despite not using scholarship money on distance athletes.

So if you are a mid-distance runner, or if you are a true distance runner who can handle great coaching despite having limited training partners, Albany could be a great option.

As noted above, if you are good, you will get the best level of competition at Albany as well given their travel schedule (Florida Relays, Penn Relays, Raleigh Relays, Stanford, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica are all on the schedule either every year or pretty regularly).

Albany also has a well regarded business school and has also produced a lot of educators. Apparently the sciences have really taken off there as well.

Finally, it is an old city, but a really fun place to have gone to college.

I know a lot of these programs fairly well and if you are a top level runner for distance, I'd say your best options are Bing, SB, and Geneseo. Bing is fairly consistent and there are many runners to train with from 1500m to 10k. They also develop a strange number of standout runners (Eric Holt, Dan Schaffer, Jesse Garn, Emily Mackay). SB has a lot of depth and talent although the surrounding area leaves a lot to be desired. Geneseo has a great program and is always consistent and if you like the idea of potentially leading your team and being highly competitive at the regional and national level, this may be the pick for you.

If you are not a distance runner, I'd say Albany may have the best sprint/field program of the SUNYs. A lot of the other SUNYs have some good talent here and there too, but there's a reason Albany usually wins conferences.

your son sounds like a tool

Unless you are fast enough where being D1 would actually make a difference (look at the meets Genneseo goes to compares to the D1 SUNY schools) go to Genneseo.

As a previous poster mentioned... competing to win conference championships, go to nationals, be AA ect. is going to be a lot more fun than what those same times would get you in one of the D1 programs

Buffalo in the winter time? You gotta be crazy!

I think stony brook might have the best team, and is very good academically, but I would not wanna run there just in terms of environment. Bing is similar except I don’t think they are quite as good besides Schaffer who is graduating. I have a teammate who runs at bing and it seems like they get a lot of talent, but have a smaller team. Geneseo is imo the best program for running considering they are pretty similar in times and just have far less talent, but they also have a million kids. I think in terms of the who the best coach out of those three it would go geneseo, stony brook, bing. Besides that idk much.

People go to SUNYs for good academics at a cheap price.

When money isn't an issue, kids prefer schools that offer comparable academics, but flashy things like competitive football/basketball, pretty campuses, weather.

There's some level in pride in being from Pennsylvania and going to Penn State. You don't see that in New York.