Ignoring the sports teams at Binghamton University has been a common occurrence since it dwelled in the lowly ranks of Division III athletics. Six years ago, Binghamton made the jump to the national stage, finally entering into the realm of Division I. Nevertheless, the BU student body still suffers from apathy, which is slowly tainting the sports program.

Having only made the jump in 2002, Binghamton is still an extremely young school in the context of college athletics. Despite this fact, the University has made huge strides in its short time as a D-I University. This past week, swimmer David Holmes competed at the NCAA championships, finishing .54 seconds away from being All-American.

The same success has been seen throughout many of the other smaller sports at Binghamton. Senior pole vaulter Rory Quiller became an all-American last week after he finished second at the NCAA championship, establishing the track team on the national stage. Wrestler Josh Patterson qualified for the NCAA championships as a freshman in a program that two years ago was dead. Larger sports saw success too. The soccer team has captured multiple America East championships and has headed to the NCAAs.

The team has even seen national attention this year, notably with ESPN.com’s article on the emergence of the wrestling program and how it stands to establish itself as a perennial powerhouse. Even the troubled Bearcat basketball team was featured on SportsCenter when Mike Gordon beat Stony Brook with a spectacular last-second off-the-back lay up on Jan. 31. Dick Vitale named the Bearcats’ December victory over Miami his upset of the week.

But even with this attention, most of the apathy from the student body stems from the idea that our school doesn’t measure up to larger sports teams, like Florida and Ohio State University. To all my Bearcats, bear in mind that as a D-I program, we are entering our sixth year, while these larger schools have been in the top tier for more than 50 years. In addition, these schools have a student body that is massive compared to ours and have budgets way beyond our current capabilities.

If you need to see any sign of the athletic department’s growth, take the Events Center as an example. It is arguably the best venue in the conference and may be one of the premier venues in the local area. The Events Center, which cost approximately $33.1 million, shows the commitment of both the school and the state to establish Binghamton as a viable mid-major school.

Finally, I will harp on the one point that every Bearcat points out for the obscurity of our sports program: the lack of a football team. It is true that the other three major SUNY centers ‘ Stony Brook, Buffalo and Albany ‘ all have football teams and that the inclusion of a football team at BU would lead to increased school spirit. Nevertheless, most mid-major football teams are terrible and receive almost no attention at those schools anyway. A recent Sports Illustrated article listed Buffalo’s football team as one of the least profitable in all of Division I-A.

The college experience tends to run for about four years, in which you are supposed to live and die with school spirit and your athletic program. We have borne witness to the rise of Albany in the national spotlight and seen schools like Boise State win a bowl game.

Therefore, I ask my fellow colleagues to throw away their Cornell sweatshirts and put on the emerald green and go support our Bearcats.