As a former Binghamton University track athlete, I would first like to extend my congratulations to the men’s and women’s track teams for a job well done at the America East Conference Championships this past weekend at Boston University. On a not so sanguine note, while I was reading the Sunday edition of The New York Times, my curiosity was piqued by an article describing the vicissitudes of the Binghamton University basketball team, and questioning whether the move to Division I status was worth the payoff, given the subsequent events that followed.
While the jump from Division III to Division I may or may not be the impetus for such actions following the leap, given the success of other Division I athletes, athletically and academically, we should perhaps instead focus on the philosophy or creed of what college athletics stand for. It seems that the Machiavellian strategy that has been pursued over the course of the past eight years or so has not quite come to the fruition that the administration has hoped for.
Simply put, what we should ask ourselves is whether the ends justify the means and if in fact the means by which we pursue victory are really worth acting on once we achieve the grandest prize of them all: a bid to the NCAA tournament. If we accomplish the goals that we initially set out to achieve, yet do so by unscrupulous means or feel the pangs of our conscience tugging at our hearts, how are we to truly revel and bask in our accolades? In the name of glory, have we forgotten the essence of what it means to be a student athlete? The purpose of collegiate athletics is to compete alongside not just a potential national champion but a future doctor, lawyer, teacher or engineer, who will go on to change the world in ways that may be unknown to us. It is through selflessness and gratitude that one should humbly accept the role of a student-athlete. One should know laboring in obscurity is worth enduring for the camaraderie of one’s teammates and the valuable lessons that one ultimately learns by discovering.
While some may question my athletic credibility on the matter, knowing full well that I have relinquished my status as an athlete, I say so with the perspectives of an insider and outsider at the same time. While the basketball team may be able to bend the rules all for the sake of winning, is it justified, knowing that other teams that are held to a higher standard are also in pursuit of the same goals as they are?
At the point of diminishing returns, perhaps we are abdicating the very role that this institution has set out to fulfill: to educate. And not just to educate in the classroom, but to educate through doing and interacting as athletes, which in the long run will outlast any win. What we have forgotten is that the athlete who just got back from a game or a meet is the same athlete who will have to crack open the book and wonder whether they will receive an interview for medical or law school, knowing full well that this is the true end that will fully justify their means.