Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
Another school from the Empire State has been added to the America East conference, membership effective July 1 of this year. Binghamton University, a member of the State University of New York system, joins fellow SUNY institutions Stony Brook University and the University at Albany as the newest additions to America East. The conference now has nine schools under membership for the 2001-2002 academic year.
For Binghamton, the move into the conference marks the final stage in the school’s process of becoming a competitor at the Division I level.
“We are elated to join America East,” Binghamton Athletic Director Joel Thirer said in a press release. “It’s an outstanding conference comprised of institutions that share our academic and athletics mission. It’s a perfect fit for Binghamton.”
The Bearcats will compete in 15 sports including baseball, softball, men’s and women’s cross country, basketball, swimming and diving, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, tennis and men’s golf in the 2001-02 academic year. Binghamton will begin play in men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball in the fall of 2002.
All Bearcat teams will be eligible for America East championships with the exception of men’s basketball, which carries an NCAA mandated two-year wait. Binghamton will participate fully in the men’s basketball regular season conference schedule beginning next season and will first be eligible for tournament play in 2004. Thus far in 2000-01, the Bearcats are 11-7 overall against their future conference opponents.
During the past two seasons, Binghamton teams have played a mixture of Division I and II schools in preparation for the move up from Division II status. In the Bearcats first year as a Division II program in 1998-99, they crowned one national champion and seven All-Americans, had three teams advance to NCAA tournaments, and six teams win league championships. Within the New England Collegiate Conference, Binghamton claimed the Walter Peterson Presidents Cup – an award presented to the member school with the best overall athletic program.
With an enrollment of more than 12,000, the university is located in the town of Vestal in the southern tier of upstate New York, 178 miles northwest of New York City and 76 miles south of Syracuse.
Bangor Daily News