Rhodes College Athletics has won the 2018 Southern Athletic Association's Commissioner's Cup, as announced by the conference Thursday morning.
Formally known as the President's Trophy, and after a year hiatus, the Lynx have gained possession of the newly named and reformatted award. The Commissioner's Cup recognizes regular season standings across each institution's top eight sports per gender.
Rhodes won seven regular season titles in Men's Cross, Field Hockey, Men's Golf, Men's Lacrosse, Women's Lacrosse, Men's Track & Field, and Women's Track & Field. Runner-up teams included Women's Cross Country, Women's Swimming & Diving, and Baseball. Those 10 teams combined for 77 of Rhodes' 110 total points.
The Lynx edged off Centre in the spring after taking home three championship titles across both track & field teams and men's golf in the final weekend of countable standings. On the year, Rhodes men totaled 55.5 eligible points and the women 54.5 points.
Rhodes previously won the cup during the 2014-15 academic year and was second in 2012-13 and 2013-14. A full history of winners can be found below.
2018 Commissioner's Cup Standings
School Earned
Top-8 Total
Rhodes 126.5
110 1st
Centre 116.5
101.5 2nd
Berry 108.5
98 3rd
BSC 105.5
93 4th
Sewanee 90.5
83.5 5th
Oglethorpe 69.5
69.5 6th
Hendrix 57
53 7th
Millsaps 49.5
49.5 8
th
Commissioner's Cup History
2017-18 – Rhodes
2016-17 – N/A
2015-16 – Berry
2014-15 – Rhodes
2013-14 – Centre
2012-13 - Centre
SAA Commissioner's Cup Guidelines (new version)
- A top-down cumulative point scale will be used with each conference champion receiving 8 points (except football because of the number of teams, thus it will be 9); for sports with less than 8 competitors, the point scale always begins at 8 and moves towards the bottom (chart listed below) If two teams tie in the standings, their points are split. For example, if third place receives six points and fourth place five points, then each team receives 5.5 points.;
- Each institution can only count their top 8 sports for men and their top 8 sports for women (thus early results will be skewed until we get through spring and some scores are tossed); this will control for equity in number of sports offered;
- Affiliate members will count in determining the standings, and points allotted, but they will not be eligible to be ranked in the overall Commissioner's Cup race;
- Standings are for regular season finishes only except in the case of sports without said standings (such as golf, swimming, track, and cross country) in which case the final standings from the SAA Championships in those sports will be used;
- Member institutions must declare the sport as varsity status, and the sport must be recognized by the SAA as a conference sport, in order to receive points;
- If the SAA ever changes its core conference membership to more than 8 institutions, the scoring system should be reviewed and adjusted accordingly;
Scoring System
9-Teams: 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1
8-Teams: 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1
7-Teams: 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 1
6-Teams: 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 3 – 1
