For those that have not been following the Binghamton University men’s lacrosse team as closely as I have — which should constitute a large majority of you since I am one of the beat writers for the team — the 2011 Bearcats’ season has been quite the ride.

A three-game losing streak to begin the year was promptly followed by a four-game winning streak, but when head coach Ed Stephenson suddenly resigned on March 19, the season took an even more unexpected twist.

In the days after the shocking announcement, there was much speculation as to why the one and only man to coach the Bearcats in their 10 years of Division I participation strangely left his post. Slowly, the real story came out, but to this day it still remains very much shrouded in mystery.

Stephenson said he resigned in response to the University’s treatment of three of his players who were suspended. Exactly what these three players did also remains unclear, but Stephenson mentioned in his email announcing his resignation that the players were involved in some altercation with a fourth individual; this involvement was to an unknown extent.

Once the athletic department was made aware of the incident, it took quick action in suspending the players, because, according to Stephenson, it was afraid of more media criticism that resulted from the lenient treatment of a BU basketball player after he beat a fellow student at a bar a few years back.

So the cause of a man voluntarily giving up his job to protect his players came as a result of something anyone could have been involved with on any given Saturday night. But believe it or not, coaches with as much honesty and responsibility as Stephenson are truly a dying breed.

Today’s NCAA is filled with very bright minds that are great tacticians and motivators in their respective sports. However, these same coaches and programs can also have a dark side. Illegal recruiting practices, improper benefits given to players and a general lack of transparency seem to make national headlines more often than Heisman-worthy performances or things that should be making news for all the right reasons.

Unfortunately, the money-making aspect of college sports often interferes with the integrity of the game. Exhibit A of this statement would be what happened at The Ohio State University a few months back, as head football coach Jim Tressel was very aware of five of his players running an illegal memorabilia scheme and did nothing about it. When the issue finally came to light, right before the Buckeyes were to play in their biggest game of the year in the Sugar Bowl, the University did not suspend the five players (one of which was star quarterback Terrelle Pryor) for the big upcoming game, as that would be inconvenient and interfere with the success and profitability of the university.

Rather, the program decided to issue a mere slap on the wrist to the offenders. Tressel and the other players involved were suspended for the first few games of the 2011-12 season, presumably when the Buckeyes would be steamrolling weak, non-conference opponents. Things like this happen too often in the college game, where these big programs, from the athletic director down through the coaching staff, let the wins and losses of their teams lead to cutting corners and clouding justice.

The same cannot be said for a coach like Stephenson, whose moral compass is always pointing up. He is the anti-Tressel; when he smelled something fishy, he refused to be associated with it. And that is exactly why he resigned. He fully believed with all his heart (and pockets, for that matter) that his players were being blatantly denied due process by the University and athletic department, and he thought that this perversion of justice on the part of the University was awful enough that he did not wish to have any part in it. He did not want to coach players that go to a university that has no sense of the crime-to-punishment ratio.

Stephenson’s resignation is significant and makes a bold statement because of its timing. The men’s lacrosse team was enjoying a 4-3 start, riding waves of confidence from a four-game winning streak into conference season with possibly the best team this program has had since, ironically, 27-year-old interim head coach Kevin McKeown’s senior year for the Bearcats in 2006.

The 2011 model has a star attackman in sophomore Matt Springer and a lockdown defenseman in senior Derrick Danieu, a unique blend of talent and experience. But the team is now missing its 10-year veteran head coach who has been a lacrosse lifer, dating way back to his college days as a defenseman at Towson University. The craziest part of the whole Stephenson resignation was that it happened at the most inconvenient time. You can almost assume that had Stephenson been the Ohio State coach, his players would be suspended for that Sugar Bowl game.

With all due respect to the job that McKeown has done after being thrust into the role of head coach, the Bearcats are probably worse off as a result of the resignation. Stephenson was a defensive mastermind and well respected in the lacrosse community. But even though this may have been a huge blow to the 2011 squad and perhaps future teams as well, Stephenson’s martyrdom transcends mere wins and losses. His actions will hopefully be an exposé of the injustices of not only the BU system, but will also call for greater justice for student-athletes nationwide.