SLIPPERY ROCK — Easy come, easy go.

Only 18 months after accepting the position of assistant athletic director at Slippery Rock University, Andy Major is headed back to the NFL.

Major, 42, a 1988 Rock graduate, has accepted the position of executive director of marketing with the Buffalo Bills. He had worked in marketing with baseball's Florida Marlins and the NFL's Miami Dolphins before returning to his alma mater.

"I'm proud of the year and a half I've been here,"Major said. "We were able to get a few programs started in the right direction in terms of marketing partnerships and fund-raising.

"I wish I had more times to get thing moving along further ... This is a bittersweet feeling, really."

Major still has family in Rochester, N.Y., while his wife has family in Northwestern Pennsylvania.

"We originally came back to Slippery Rock to be closer to family,"he said. "In Buffalo, we'll be right between both of our families. It's an ideal situation that way.

"This is the NFL, which is a tremendous league to work for. In terms of marketing and technology, the Bills are one of the more progressive teams in the league. They are one of the leaders on that side of things in the NFLand it's exciting to get in on that.

"I'll have a 12-person staff and they are great people. That made this decision that much easier,"Major added.

Major's job duties will include working with the Bills' website initiative, the team's TVand radio side, developing corporate partnerships and sponsorships and working with the gameday staff dealing with the scoreboard.

Much of his duties at SRUinvolved development of corporate partnerships and sponsorships as well.

"It's definitely different working in professional sports as opposed to a college," he said. "At Slippery Rock, there's more administrative stuff to deal with, more paperwork and more people to run things through.

"There are more budgetary concerns, less of a willingness to take risks, and that's understandable. The funding you're working with isn't as great."

SRUathletic director Paul Lueken said Major wasn't looking to leave The Rock. The Buffalo job found him.

"He has a lot of contacts up there and they made him an unbelievable job offer,"Lueken said. "We're going to miss him."

Major said he would have considered only a handful of NFLteams — Pittsburgh, Buffalo and other Northeastern cities — because of proximity to family.

"The two games the Bills are playing in Toronto this season are Pittsburgh (preseason) and Miami (regular season),"Major said. "I guess that was telling me something."

Major is friends with Russ Brandon, the chief operating officer of the Bills, who contacted him and asked him to consider the position.

Lueken said the university may restructure its athletic office rather than replace Major directly.

"Andy's done a lot of work in event management and fund-raising here, for example," Lueken said. "We may separate those duties now. We're still discussing it."

Major lauded SRU, from president Robert Smith through the administrative staff and coaches.

"I've had a great experience here," he said. "The coaches care about their own sport and the other sports at the university. And everyone, from Dr. Smith on down, has a genuine concern for the student-athletyes.

"I know it's a cliche that universities work hard to give the students what they need to go on to success in life, but that really happens here."