Another semester has come and gone, and overall I guess you could say that it wasn’t bad at all. We had two conference championship teams and a few accolades from star players. It is amazing to see how the Bearcats came fifth in the nation for GPA among Division I soccer teams and how the basketball team rose from the ashes of the problems it has encountered this year and is playing better than anyone would have thought. Overall, as far the athletes are concerned, they really held up the Binghamton name.

The administration and the athletic department, however, are another story.

The basketball fiasco this semester truly showed me the politics involved with athletics. I was shocked to see how the same people who hoisted and praised the basketball team, swept them under the rug without a reason or answer as to why they did it. Every week, more questions come up. It’s no question that Tiki Mayben’s problems deserved immediate action, but what about the others? What happened with our leading scorer, the Bearcats’ version of LeBron James, D.J. Rivera? Or the Syracuse associate head coach’s son David Fine? What happened to the highly touted transfers, Paul Crosby and former Rutgers star Corey Chandler? What will become of former Georgetown University assistant coach Kevin Broadus? Why was former athletic director Joel Thirer forced out? Last week we heard that another assistant coach, Julius Allen, was removed from the team. What exactly is going on with that audit?

Former Bearcat Malik Alvin claims that the administration kicked the players off the team for no reason at all but to save its own neck. If this is not true, then why hasn’t the administration come out with a clear-cut answer?

From newspapers to blogs, headlines all over are reading, “Binghamton cleans house” and rumors from police reports to credit card fraud are swirling all over campus.

The way they handled this basketball fiasco was absolutely shameful. At beginning of all of this we mentioned that, unfortunately, officials must do what they have to do in certain situations. We put our trust in them and now we find ourselves without any answers.

I found it ironic when the America East trophy was put on display in the front entrance of the Events Center at the season opener. How is this a victory when the players and coaches are no longer with the team? If Binghamton wants its name to be associated with an America East basketball champion, then it has to mention the people that made it possible. There is no use in showing off a grand title when everyone knows what happened in the aftermath.