Let me begin by telling you why Pittsburgh is better than Binghamton.

While I was in this great city a few weeks ago, four big events were happening: The Penguins played the Devils, the Steelers beat the Vikings, the WWE was in town (with the Big Show apparently staying in my hotel) and the University of Pittsburgh held its homecoming weekend.

From Friday to Sunday, 90 percent of the people I met on the streets of Pittsburgh were wearing either Penguins, Steelers or UPitt jerseys. The Penguins and Steelers jerseys were no surprise, but the UPitt jerseys came as a big shock to me. It’s not often that I’ve seen such support for a college sports team from the citizens of that school’s host city, especially while I’ve been in Binghamton. In addition to the many events held by the University of Pittsburgh for homecoming weekend, the city of Pittsburgh itself held a laser light show, with fireworks in the streets to celebrate.

Can you imagine if we had that kind of support, or an event like that happening in Downtown Binghamton or along Vestal Parkway?

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “But Russell, how can we gain that type of support with the local residents without a football team?” To this I say, “Shut up. I ask the questions around here. I’m Tiger Woods.”

But really, Binghamton has a great soccer team, and a great potential fan base. We just need to strengthen ties between the local residents of Binghamton and Vestal and the student population. Maybe it’s just me, but Binghamton is the only school I’ve heard of where the local stereotype is that the townies hate the students and vice versa. All that we need to do to make a lasting relationship with the people we share Binghamton with is to make an effort to reach out to them, and really push to get Binghamton and Vestal locals interested in coming to BU soccer and (God willing) basketball games.

Binghamton is a great school, with great academics. I personally chose Binghamton for the School of Management, which has one of the better business programs in the country (and the No. 2 accounting program, not to brag or anything), over schools with great academic programs and school spirit, including the University of Pittsburgh (and yes, I was kicking myself about that this weekend). But I don’t see why I should have to sacrifice having the same type of atmosphere that so many bigger schools in the country enjoy just because I chose a school with great academics that happens to be missing a football team (undefeated for how many years now?).

To combat this problem, I propose to you, the students of Binghamton University, to start becoming the fans that I know we all can and want to be, and to start reaching out to the community outside of campus. These people are a valuable resource we should be using and respecting.

And to the Binghamton athletic department, if you’re reading this, I know how much crap you guys are going through right now, but if you were to make the push to advertise sporting events more toward the general public, we could show the rest of the country that Binghamton still takes pride in its sports teams and gives them the full support of the student body. So please, let’s all take steps to assure that an opinionated jerk like myself never has an excuse to write an opening line like the one in this column ever again. Go Bearcats!