EIU Women's Basketball Team Wins OVC Sportsmanship Award

On Friday the Ohio Valley Conference announced that the Austin Peay State University men's team and the Eastern Illinois University women's team are the recipients of the 2015-16 Team Sportsmanship Awards for men's and women's basketball.
 
Voted on by the student-athletes and coaches of the respective sports, the team awards are bestowed upon the Conference squads deemed to have best exhibited the standards of sportsmanship and ethical behavior as outlined by the OVC and NCAA. Included in the areas for evaluation are the conduct of student-athletes, coaches, staff and administrators and fans.
 
"Without sportsmanship there are truly no meaningful victories," said Beth DeBauche, OVC Commissioner. "The recipients of the OVC Team Sportsmanship awards should accept this award with great pride for their fellow competitors have made it clear their teams exemplify the best in intercollegiate athletics. In receiving this prestigious honor other competitors are saying these student-athletes compete with class, respect their opponents and value fair play. That is quite a compliment as those are all traits that will lead to true victories throughout the course of life."
 
The 2015-16 school year marks the 11th year the team sportsmanship honors have been awarded. It marks the third overall award for the Austin Peay program (2007-08, 2009-10) and second for the Eastern Illinois program (2012-13).

EIU Second in OVC Commissioner's Cup Standings

After the completion of the winter sport championships, Murray State University leads the 2015-16 Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner's Cup all-sport trophy standings; the Cup is a symbol of overall athletic excellence in Conference-sponsored championships.  Eastern Illinois was second in the standings as teams are in the midst of their spring sport seasons.
 
Murray State, who has won claimed the 2008-09 Commissioner's Cup, has been paced by a first-place finishes in soccer, volleyball and rifle.
 
EIU has won three OVC Commissioner’s Cups and finished second in the standings the four other year’s the league has used the Commissioner’s Cup format.  The Panthers strong standing was bolstered by the men’s indoor track championship and second place OVC finishes in football, volleyball, women’s indoor track, women’s cross country and men’s cross country.  

Murray State (81 total points) has a five-point lead over second-place Eastern Illinois (76) and a 5.5-point advantage over Eastern Kentucky (75.5) who has claimed the last two Cup championships. Belmont is fourth (61.5) followed by Southeast Missouri (61), UT Martin (53), Tennessee Tech (52.5), Tennessee State (51.5), Morehead State (48.5), Jacksonville State (46.5), SIUE (43) and Austin Peay (40).

The 2015-16 season marks the eighth 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 in 2008-09 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. Belmont, Morehead State and SIUE, which do not compete in OVC football, count baseball as one of its four required sports.
 
Under the old system current leader Eastern Kentucky won 15 Men's All-Sport Trophies and seven Women's All-Sport Trophies. Both are all-time bests in each category.
 
The points system for scoring is as follows. For all sports (except rifle, men's indoor and men's outdoor track – which have fewer participating teams), the first place team earns 12 points, the second place team earns 11 points, etc. For rifle, men's indoor and men's outdoor track and field, the first-place team earns 12 points and subsequent point increments are calculated by dividing the total number of OVC member institutions by the number of institutions sponsoring the sport. In addition winners of OVC Tournaments (soccer, volleyball, basketball, tennis, softball and baseball) get one additional bonus point.
 
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).