Rhodes College Athletics has won the 2019 Southern Athletic Association's Commissioner's Cup for the second year in a row, as announced by the conference Wednesday morning.
The Commissioner's Cup recognizes regular season standings across each institution's top eight sports per gender. Formally known as the President's Trophy, and after a two-year hiatus, this is the second year for the current format to be utilized.
Rhodes won six regular season titles in Men's Cross Country, Women's Golf, Men's Lacrosse, Women's Lacrosse, Men's Track & Field, and Women's Track & Field. Runner-up teams included Field Hockey, Men's Soccer, Women's Soccer, Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Swimming & Diving, Men's Tennis. Those 12 teams, including six from the spring, combined for 90 of Rhodes' 133 earned points. After taking each gender's top eight teams, the Lynx totaled 113 points, three more than last year's total, to win the Cup. Rhodes was split down the middle with three men's champions and three women's champions as well as each gender earning three second place finishes.
On the year, Rhodes women totaled 57 eligible points and the men 52 points.
Not counting towards the standings, Rhodes also earned four conference tournament champions, four+ All-Americans, three coaching staffs totaled five Coach of the Year honors, one regional Coach of the Year, seven Players of the Year and five Newcomers of the Year. The Lynx have had at six NCAA team appearances this year, with more teams and individuals in the running.
This is Rhodes' third time earning the Commissioner's Cup. The Lynx finished second in 2012-13 and 2013-14. A full history of winners can be found below. Standings are the exact same from 2017-18.
2018-19 Commissioner's Cup Standings
School Earned
Top-8 Total
Rhodes 133
113 1st
Centre 115.5
104 2nd
Berry 112
102.5 3rd
BSC 100.5
88.5 4th
Sewanee 87.5
80 5th
Oglethorpe 66.5
66.5 6th
Hendrix 56
52 7th
Millsaps 46
46 8
th
Commissioner's Cup History
2018-19 – Rhodes
2017-18 – Rhodes
2016-17 – N/A
2015-16 – N/A
2014-15 – Rhodes
2013-14 – Centre
2012-13 - Centre
SAA Commissioner's Cup Guidelines
- A top-down cumulative point scale is used with each conference champion receiving eight points (except football because of the number of teams, thus it will be nine); for sports with less than eight competitors, the point scale always begins at eight 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 eight sports for men and their top eight sports for women. This will control for equity in number of sports offered per institution.
- 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 eight institutions, the scoring system will 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
