For the second time in three years, Cal Poly was awarded the Dennis Farrell Big West Commissioner’s Cup, an annual honor given to the school with the most points awarded for the combined successes of all their men’s and women’s athletics teams in the Big West conference.
Cal Poly finished with 163.3 points, the highest total that has ever been awarded in the award’s history, beating their own previous record of 149.9.
The points are given based on each team’s final standings, either from their regular season or the Big West Championships, depending on the sport. To ensure fairness, those points are then divided by the number of teams each school has, with Cal Poly having 16.
The Mustangs had 10 separate Big West regular season and tournament championships across all sports this year, including men’s and women’s cross country, volleyball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, beach volleyball, women’s golf, men’s tennis, men’s track and field and baseball.
Even though Cal Poly fell second shortest on points during the winter season, only getting a handful of points from wrestling, men’s basketball and women’s basketball, the Mustangs came through for their second ever win ahead of runner-up UC Irvine, who finished with 134.9 points.
The award was started in 1998, a few years after Cal Poly joined The Big West in 1994. The Mustangs had placed second four times before their first ever title in the 2023-24 season.
In that year, they broke the record for most total and most average points between all sports, for a total of 2,390 points, or 149.4 average points. UC Irvine took the title for the 2024-25 season, breaking Cal Poly’s total point record, but not their average point record.
Despite already clinching the conference honor, Cal Poly’s teams aren’t quite done, as baseball and track and field are set to compete in their respective NCAA Tournaments in the coming week.
