By Long Beach State might be running out of shelf space after the school was awarded its fifth straight Big West Commissioner’s Cup on Monday.
The cup goes to the athletic program with the best regular season finishes among all the sports in the conference.
Each school earns a certain amount of points depending on which place they finish in each sport; conference championships add bonus points to that tally. The total amount of points is then divided by the number of competitions the school participates in to find an average. The school that has the best average wins the cup.
This year, LBSU finished with an average of 117.1 points; 5.2 points ahead of second place UC Davis. The consistency of women’s tennis and men’s track and field, who won championships this year, propelled the school to another cup win.
Women’s tennis has won the last five conference titles and the men’s track and field has won four of the last five. Women’s volleyball added another title this year and 10 top-four finishes from the rest of the sports secured the 2015 cup.
In the Commissioner Cup’s 16-year history, only three teams have won it. Former member Pacific took home the first two cups in 1999 and 2000, followed by UC Santa Barbara taking the next five.
LBSU took its first cup in 2006 breaking UCSB’s dominance, and Santa Barbara answered by winning three of the next four cups. However, this year’s win marks LBSU’s seventh cup, now trailing UCSB in total cups by one.
