Ithaca Wins 2016-17 Commissioner Cup
Ithaca College has won the Empire 8 Commissioner's Cup for the 2016-17 year; marking the 17th 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 146 points out of a possible 170 – good for a percentage of .859.
The top two rankings in the standings the last seven years has always been a battle between Ithaca and Stevens Institute of Technology. The 2016-2017 academic year was no different but it was the Bombers who claimed Empire 8 Championships in nine different sports and runner-up in four others to secure the Cup.
The Bombers had a strong showing across the board during the fall season to get the year started, as Ithaca defended its five conference titles from the previous year in men's and women's cross country, women's golf, women's tennis and women’s volleyball.
Ithaca won four more E8 titles during the winter season, which included men’s and women's indoor track and field, women’s basketball and women's swimming & diving. The Bombers wrapped up the 2016-17 athletic year with an Empire 8 Championship in baseball and women's outdoor track and field.
Stevens finished in second place with a percentage of .818, totaling three championships and ten second-place finishes throughout the year. The .818 percentage is the second highest total for the Ducks in any Commissioner Cup standing, with the highest total of .830 coming last year in 2015-16.
Stevens won the women’s soccer title for the second straight year and the men’s swimming and diving title for the fifth straight year and finished first in men’s tennis for the eighth straight season.
Finishing in third place (.755), sponsoring 21 conference sports, achieving six conference titles and five second-place finishes are the St. John Fisher Cardinals.
Fisher kicked off the academic year with its first ever titles in field hockey and men’s soccer. The field hockey team finished the year 19-3 and rattled off 18 consecutive wins ranking as the longest win-streak of the season in Division III. The Cardinal’s became the second men’s soccer program in E8 tournament history to win the conference champion as the No. 4 seed. Fisher won its second title in three years in men’s basketball and finished second in women’s indoor track and field.
The spring saw men's golf win its seventh straight E8 title and women's lacrosse win the championship for the sixth straight year. Softball won its fifth title in program history and first since 2013.
Nazareth earned a .561 percentage to place fourth in the final standings for the fifth 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. Women’s indoor track and field provided the highest finish (third) for Nazareth over the winter season, while men’s lacrosse became the first No. 3 seed to win the conference championship.
Hartwick (.513) and Utica (.451) are separated by .062 hundredths in the standings, while Houghton (.392), Alfred (.358) and Elmira (.246) 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). 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.
| 2016 - 2017 Final Standings |
Percentage |
Actual Points |
Possible Points |
| Ithaca |
.859 |
146 |
170 |
| Stevens |
.818 |
135 |
165 |
| St. John Fisher |
.755 |
123 |
163 |
| Nazareth |
.561 |
92 |
164 |
| Hartwick |
.513 |
59 |
115 |
| Utica |
.451 |
79 |
175 |
| Houghton |
.392 |
58 |
148 |
| Alfred |
.358 |
54 |
151 |
| Elmira |
.246 |
32 |
130 |