The New York Times unfairly blew the whistle Sunday on Binghamton University’s Division I men’s basketball program, a vehicle that administrators hope could eventually help lift the school among the nation’s elite. (See Page 23.)

The Bearcats, with just eight years at the Division I level, are poised to make their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament this year, but have been continually distracted by off-the-court issues. For a school of Binghamton’s reputation, The Times’ Pete Thamel questioned “whether it is all worth seeing Binghamton’s name pop up on CBS on Selection Sunday” and asked “at what cost the University has pursued big-time men’s basketball.”

The Times fails to acknowledge that for BU to reach the big time it has to start somewhere. There would have been little point to that $33 million Events Center if Binghamton didn’t, as Herman Edwards might say, play to win the game.

Of course, in an athletic conference as inconsequential as the America East, and at the helm of a program as young as Binghamton’s, head coach Kevin Broadus can’t lure the nation’s top talent. The best he can do is harness the talents of players who faltered at more prominent programs, and that comes with known risks.

But there are also rewards for successful D1 programs, and BU’s administration knows this. As only the 20th most valuable college basketball program in 2007-08, Xavier College netted a profit of $6.3 million according to Forbes.com. At the pinnacle sits North Carolina, which finished the same season with a profit of $16.9 million.

In November, Pipe Dream’s editorial board criticized Broadus’ recruiting practices, and we remain disappointed in the team’s inability to avoid becoming tabloid fodder and their poor representation of the student body’s character. We also do not believe athletes should be held to different standards than the average student, as Thamel quotes BU faculty members stating is the case.

But — and we have to believe the national newspaper of record could have thought of this themselves, or perhaps did and ignored it — scandal is everywhere in the NCAA, and in worse ways. There were reported cases of academic fraud among athletes at Florida State in 2007, at Louisiana State in 2004 and 2005 and at the University of Mexico just this past August, just to name a few.

Reports of possible criminal incidents, too, are rampant. At Syracuse, which has the best Division I basketball program in New York and is Thamel’s alma mater, players were accused of sexual assault in August, though were later cleared by a university judicial affairs panel.

And just this month, Roy Willis, a player for one of the nation’s best basketball teams, Oklahoma, was arrested under suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Binghamton, then, doesn’t seem to be the greatest offender. It’s following a tried and true road map to get its slice. Impropriety, unfortunately, is not an uncommon way of life for successful NCAA franchises. The Times should have focused on the system and the forest, not the infantile program and the trees.

Thamel’s story executed an agenda, from the selection of quotes to the range of sources. A former player who left the Bearcats under questionable conditions said the team liked to drink and smoke weed.

You don’t say? In college? Plenty of other sports teams are lining up to do the next keg stand and pack the next bowl.

Players were also knocked for texting in class, another harmless offense.

If Thamel’s story had to be about Binghamton, it should have looked at the realities of putting together a winning D1 basketball team. If the story had to be about controversy in the NCAA, it should have looked to greater deviants.

But, as former BU athletic administrator Tim Schum said of Thamel’s story, “that’s what’s news.”