Ithaca College has won the Empire 8 Commissioner’s Cup for the 2013-14 year; marking the 14th consecutive year the Bombers have won the all-sports award.
Standings for the Commissioner’s Cup are determined by schools’ standings in conference sports. Ithaca, which sponsors 22 of the league’s 23 sports, totaled 131 points out of a possible 148 – good for a percentage of .885.
The top two rankings in the standings the last five years has always been a battle between Ithaca and Stevens Institute of Technology. The 2013-2014 academic year was no different and it all came down to the spring championships. Three hundredths of a percentage (.036) following the winter season separated the Bombers and Ducks but it was the Bombers who claimed top honors in five spring sports and runner-up points in two others to secure the Cup.
The Bombers had a strong showing across the board during the fall season to get the year started, winning six conference titles, which included men’s and women’s cross country, football, women’s golf, women’s soccer and women’s tennis.
Ithaca won four more E8 titles during the winter season, which included men’s and women’s indoor track and field, women’s swimming & diving and women’s basketball. The Bombers wrapped up the 2013-14 athletic year with an Empire 8 Championship in baseball, softball, men’s lacrosse and men’s and women’s outdoor track and field.
Stevens finished in second place with a percentage of .771, totaling three championships and six second-place finishes. The .771 percentage is the second highest total for the Ducks in any Commissioner Cup standing since joining the Empire 8. Stevens highest was .778 during the 12-13 season.
Stevens won the men’s soccer title in the fall and made the conference tournament in field hockey, women’s soccer, women’s tennis and volleyball. The Ducks also finished as runner up in women’s cross-country and took third in men’s cross-country. The winter season proved to be very successful for the Ducks as they won the men’s swimming and diving title for the second straight year, and claimed second in women’s swimming and women’s basketball. Stevens completed the academic year winning the conference title in men’s tennis for the fifth straight year.
Finishing in third place, sponsoring 21 conference sports, achieving three conference titles and one second-place finish are the St. John Fisher Cardinals.
Fisher kicked off the academic year with a second place finish in field hockey as a third-year program and placed second in football. The Cardinals earned its highest finish in men’s and women’s indoor track & field as a third-year program. The men took second and the women took third. The spring season saw men’s golf win its ninth eighth E8 title in the last ten years and women’s lacrosse defeated Ithaca in the championship game for the third straight year.
Nazareth finished .041 behind Fisher to place fourth in the final standings. In the fall, the Golden Flyers won the women’s volleyball title for the third straight year and finished second in women’s golf, women’s tennis and women’s soccer. Nazareth’s best showing in the winter came in men’s basketball with a runner-up finish. The Golden Flyers consistently finished in the middle of the sports standings during the spring season with E8 tournament appearances in men’s and women’s lacrosse and men’s tennis.
Hartwick, Utica, Elmira and Alfred complete the standings.
Commissioner's Cup points are awarded based on each team's finish in the Empire 8 standings at the completion of the season. Points are awarded on a scale dependent upon the number of schools that sponsor the sport (affiliate members are not calculated into the point scale. Houghton is also not calculated into the standings based on NCAA provisional status). The conference championship team in each sport receives the highest amount of points, followed by the runner-up. Teams tied for a position are ranked based on tiebreaker scenarios. The actual amount of points earned is then divided by the amount of possible points for each school based on conference-sponsored sports to determine percentage.
|
Final 2013-2014 |
Actual Points |
Possible Points |
Percentage |
|
Ithaca |
131 |
148 |
.885 |
|
Stevens |
111 |
144 |
.771 |
|
St. John Fisher |
88 |
141 |
.624 |
|
Nazareth |
84 |
144 |
.583 |
|
Hartwick |
48 |
102 |
.471 |
|
Utica |
63 |
149 |
.423 |
|
Elmira |
39 |
94 |
.415 |
|
Alfred |
40 |
133 |
.301 |
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