HOUGHTON, N.Y. – The Houghton Athletic Department found itself in the top-half of the Empire 8 Conference for the second-consecutive year, as they finished No. 4 in the Final E8 Commissioner's Cup standings.
The Commissioner's Cup recognizes department-wide success across all athletic programs and measures success based on results throughout the academic year. The standings are determined by each members' standings in conference sports following the regular season and post-season. This season, 19 sports that contested championship competition were included, as the Empire 8 was one of just a few Division III conferences across the country to play all three seasons.
Prior to last year's finish, Houghton's previous high was sixth after the 2017-18 season.
"To finish fourth for the second year in a row shows that we are making competitive strides within the conference," said Director of Athletics
Matthew Webb. "This is a testament to our coaches and athletes and the hard work they are putting in."
Houghton was led by the men's tennis program, which grabbed its first conference title and advanced to the NCAA National Tournament. Men's soccer claimed a share of the conference regular season title before falling in the tournament semifinals. Baseball finished second, field hockey and women's soccer were each third, while volleyball and women's tennis were each fourth, in each sport's final regular season standings.
During postseason play, baseball, men's soccer, women's tennis and field hockey each advanced to the E8 semifinals, while volleyball and women's soccer lost in the E8 first round. Additionally, men's cross country finished third in the E8 championship meet, with men's indoor and outdoor track and field each finished fourth. Women's cross country and indoor track and field garnered fourth place finishes, while the women's outdoor track program was fifth. Women's basketball and men's lacrosse opted out of conference competition for the spring. Men's basketball and women's lacrosse were unable to finish their seasons.
Commissioner's Cup points are awarded based on each team's finish in the Empire 8 conference standings at the completion of the regular season and post-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). A team's regular season finish will be added to its post-season finish and divided by two for the final total for that sport.
Teams tied for a position in the regular season standings 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 their overall percentage.
The top-four remained unchanged from 2019-20, with St. John Fisher, Nazareth and Utica finishing ahead of the Highlanders among the nine E8 institutions.
The final Empire 8 Commissioner's Cup standings are listed below.
2020-21 Final Empire 8 Commissioner's Cup Standings ^
| Standings |
Actual |
Possible |
Pct |
| St. John Fisher |
107.5 |
118 |
0.91101695 |
| Nazareth |
83.75 |
113 |
0.74115044 |
| Utica |
67.5 |
113 |
0.59734513 |
| Houghton |
51.5 |
102 |
0.50490196 |
| Russell Sage |
45.25 |
102 |
0.44362745 |
| Hartwick |
12.75 |
29 |
0.43965517 |
| Elmira |
14.75 |
34 |
0.43382353 |
| Keuka |
17.5 |
41 |
0.42682927 |
| Alfred |
42 |
103 |
0.40776699 |
^ Empire 8 did not begin league play for the 2020-21 season until March 1, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Football and swimming and diving were not included, as the league did not crown a champion for those sports.
