Golden Eagles tied for fifth in OVC Commissioner's Cup Race after winter

View the current OVC Commissioner's Cup standings (PDF)

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- With seven Golden Eagle teams competing for championships this spring, Tennessee Tech finds itself tied for fifth place -- right in the middle -- in the 2009-10 Ohio Valley Conference race for the Commissioner's Cup following completion of the winter sports.

Eastern Illinois University leads the all-sport trophy standings, paced by first-place finishes in football, women’s basketball, women’s indoor track and field and men’s indoor track and field. No other OVC school has had more than two first-place finishes so far this season. The Panthers were also second in men’s cross country and third in women’s cross country.

EIU (73.5 total points) has a 7.5 point lead over second-place Eastern Kentucky, who claimed first-place finishes in men’s and women’s cross country during the fall. Murray State, who had first-place finishes in rifle and men’s basketball is third with 61.5 points and followed by Morehead State (50 points, including a first-place finish in women’s soccer).

Tennessee Tech and Southeast Missouri are tied for fifth place (45.5 points) and followed closely by Jacksonville State (45), who had a first-place finish in volleyball. Austin Peay (43), UT Martin (36.5) and Tennessee State (24.5) round out the standings.
 
The 2009-10 season marks the second for the re-formatted Commissioner’s Cup, which was previously known as the All-Sports Trophy. The award (which started in 1962-63 for men’s sports and 1980-81 for women’s sports) was previously divided into a Men’s All-Sport Champion and a Women’s All-Sport Champion. Points were awarded for each of the 18 sponsored sports and each school was required to count its totals from each sport in its grand total.
 
Beginning last year only one trophy was awarded. Schools are required to count point totals for four main sports (football, volleyball, men’s basketball and women’s basketball) along with their next eight highest point totals from the remaining sports, regardless of gender. Morehead State, which does not compete in OVC football, counts baseball as one of its four required sports. This season Jacksonville State, who was ineligible for the OVC or NCAA Championship due to historical APR occasion three penalties, received zero points for football
 
There are eight OVC Championships remaining this year (women’s tennis, men’s tennis, women’s golf, men’s golf, women’s outdoor track & field, men’s outdoor track & field, softball and baseball), and Tech fields teams in seven of those, missing only men's outdoor track & field.