Ithaca College has won the Empire 8 Commissioner's Cup for the 2015-16 year; marking the 16th 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 153 points out of a possible 169 – good for a percentage of .905.
The top two rankings in the standings the last six years has always been a battle between Ithaca and Stevens Institute of Technology. The 2015-2016 academic year was no different and it all came down to the spring championships. One hundredth of a percentage (.01) following the winter season separated the Bombers and Ducks but it was the Bombers who claimed top honors in four spring sports and runner-up points in three others to secure the Cup.
The Bombers had a strong showing across the board during the fall season to get the year started, winning five conference titles, which included men's and women's cross country, women's golf, women's tennis and women’s volleyball.
Ithaca won three more E8 titles during the winter season, which included men’s and women's indoor track and field and women's swimming & diving. The Bombers wrapped up the 2015-16 athletic year with an Empire 8 Championship in baseball, men’s lacrosse, softball and women's outdoor track and field.
Stevens finished in second place with a percentage of .830, totaling six championships and six second-place finishes throughout the year. The .830 percentage is the highest total for the Ducks in any Commissioner Cup standing, with the previous highest total of .805 coming last year in 2014-15.
Stevens won the men's soccer, women’s soccer and field hockey titles in the fall and finished as runner-up in women’s cross country, women's tennis and women’s volleyball. The winter season proved to be successful for the Ducks as they won the men's swimming and diving title for the fourth straight year and claimed the women’s basketball title for the first time since 2010-11. Stevens completed the academic year winning the conference title in men's tennis for the seventh straight year and finished as runner-up in men’s lacrosse.
Finishing in third place (.679), sponsoring 21 conference sports, achieving three conference titles and five second-place finishes are the St. John Fisher Cardinals.
Fisher kicked off the academic year with a share of the football title and then proceeded to claim two runner-up finishes during the winter championships as the Cardinals place second in men’s basketball and men's indoor track and field. The spring saw men's golf win its sixth straight E8 title and women's lacrosse defeated Ithaca in the championship game for the fifth straight year.
Nazareth earned a .577 percentage to place fourth in the final standings for the fourth straight year. In the fall, the Golden Flyers finished third in women’s cross country, women’s soccer, women’s tennis and women’s volleyball. Men’s basketball provided the highest finish (third) for Nazareth over the winter season, while men’s lacrosse, women’s lacrosse and men’s tennis capped off the year with E8 semifinal tournament appearances.
Hartwick (.443) and Utica (.435) are separated by .008 thousandths in the standings, while Houghton (.372), Elmira (.364) and Alfred (.331) 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.
| 2015 - 2016 Final Standings |
Percentage |
Actual Points |
Possible Points |
| Ithaca |
.905 |
153 |
169 |
| Stevens |
.830 |
137 |
165 |
| St. John Fisher |
.679 |
110 |
162 |
| Nazareth |
.577 |
94 |
163 |
| Hartwick |
.443 |
51 |
115 |
| Utica |
.435 |
74 |
170 |
| Houghton |
.372 |
55 |
148 |
| Elmira |
.364 |
47 |
129 |
| Alfred |
.331 |
50 |
151 |
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