Seawolves Football Picked to Finish at No. 7 in New Conference

It stood on top of the Big South conference for the last few years, but things aren't so defined yet for Stony Brook's football team as it heads into a new conference this season.

The Seawolves, winners of four straight Big South conference titles and a 21-3 conference record over that time, were picked to finish seventh out of 11 teams in their new conference, the Colonial Athletic Association, the Seawolves announced Wednesday.

The poll, consisting of coaches and sports information directors, placed Villanova – whom the Seawolves defeated in 2012 in the first round of the FCS playoffs – as the No. 1 team in the conference, followed by Towson at second and New Hampshire at third.

Head coach Chuck Priore himself told Newsday that he picked his team to finish around the middle of the group as well. He said the seventh-place pick doesn't bother him.

"I have confidence we'll be playing our last couple games of the year for an opportunity to be in the playoffs," he told Newsday. "I have total confidence in that. I don't think we'll be defined by whether we make the playoffs. We'll be defined by those outcomes each Saturday and how we competed."

The Sports Network has Stony Brook ranked No. 11 in the FCS subdivision heading into the 2013 season. The team will kick off its season on Aug. 5, with a scrimmage against Penn on Aug. 31 and its first game of the season at Rhode Island on Sept. 7.