So you’ve decided to attend Binghamton University for the good education, low tuition and partying, but now you’re wondering: How good are Binghamton sports teams? Well, to paraphrase Edward Norton in ‘Fight Club,’ you’ve met us at a very strange time in our lives.

You’ve come at a time of unparalleled highs and lows for our athletics. Our basketball team’s ride has been the most public, from the high of going to the NCAA tournament; to the low of having six players and a coach dismissed for conduct issues; to the high of the team still managing an 8-8 record after being expected to finish last; to the final low of having the school administration decide to pull the team out of the conference tournament. And that doesn’t even include the review of our athletic department that found that standards were lowered to allow athletes into the school.

But before you decide that a lack of a football team and the embarrassments of our basketball team are enough to give up on the idea of being a Bearcat, see how the rest of our teams have done. In the 2009-10 season, we’ve had four conference champions, three regular season champions, a wrestler who became our second-ever All-American and a player drafted in the Major League Baseball draft.

It’s one thing to be successful, but the Bearcats have done it in style. Wrestling overcame eight-time defending conference champion Hofstra in taking the CAA conference title, and for the second-straight year produced an All-American. The team went on to finish No. 21 in the NCAAs. This was a team that hadn’t finished better than eighth in the conference before 2006, which is now poised to remain a national presence. Volleyball was projected to finish first in the conference, ended the season tied for fourth, but stepped up its play in the conference tournament to take the title.

Men’s tennis and baseball have been just as impressive. This season, men’s tennis went 25-2 and won the America East Conference tournament for the sixth time in eight years. The team is now ranked No. 49 in the nation and No. 2 in the Northeast, while junior Sven Vloedgraven is No. 115 nationally and No. 1 in the Northeast. Baseball finished 21-3 in conference to finish regular season champions for the fourth-straight year, and for the second-straight year is sending a player up to the professional ranks.

We could go on, but the point is that while their performances haven’t gotten as much attention, our athletes have done outstanding things both regionally and nationally. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll hear a lot of negatives over the next few months, and blame will be pointed all around. But our athletics program is full of talented, character student-athletes who are looking to bring glory to our school. The thing is, it’s hard to do that without something to energize you and push you to greatness. That’s where you come in.

Fans are the lifeblood of an athletics program. When men’s basketball won the conference a year ago, that was exciting enough on its own. What made it special for all of us was the packed house of thousands of screaming fans who had lined up for hours to see the game and celebrated on the court with the players when the final buzzer sounded. When fans go to the men’s soccer games, they go to sing and chant with the Bearcat Hooligans as much as to root for the team.

We have 19 teams here at Binghamton, and almost every one has a chance to win their conference next season. But a team’s fan base is what can separate a good team from a great one. In those pivotal minutes that can spell the difference between a win and a loss, the shouts of hundreds of fans can be what pushes a team to victory.

These are indeed strange times at Binghamton University, but it looks like it will also be a time of success the likes of which our school has never seen before. So while you’re here at BU, take pride in being a Bearcat. Go watch a sport you’ve never seen, and bring a friend too. You just might find that you’ve become a part of a champion.