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The 2025-26 Dennis Farrell Big West Commissioners Cup fall standings are here, and Cal Poly holds the commanding advantage after yet another stellar fall for the Mustangs. 
 

First awarded after the 1998-99 season, The Big West Commissioner's Cup is given annually to the athletic department who has the best overall performance across all Big West conference-sponsored sports. 
 

Through the fall, the Mustangs have compiled a five-sport average of 199.3 points to land on the top line of the standings and over 50 points ahead of their closest competitors. Both cross country programs earned maximum points after capturing The Big West titles to close out October. Men’s soccer claimed a piece of the regular-season title with women’s volleyball and women’s soccer garnering second-place points tallies. 
 

Also seeing success in the national postseason, the women’s soccer team pushed national runners-up Stanford in the first round, giving the Cardinal their toughest test and closest margin of victory in the postseason before the Championship finale. Additionally, the women’s volleyball team advanced to the Round of 16 last weekend as the only unseeded team to advance to the third round in the brackets since the Championship seeding format changed in 2022.The Mustangs were the first Big West squad to play in a regional semifinal since 2019 before falling to eventual Final Four team Kentucky. 
 

“Named in honor of former Commissioner Dennis Farrell, the Big West Commissioner’s Cup represents comprehensive competitive excellence across The Big West,” noted current Big West Commissioner Dan Butterly. “By capturing four fall championships, Cal Poly has taken an early lead and set the pace for the Big West this year. At the same time, the depth of competition throughout the standings reinforces that every championship, every match, and every point will matter as the race continues.” 
 

Traditionally strong in the fall, Cal Poly lands atop the fall standings for the third consecutive season and five out of the last six seasons in which a Cup was awarded. However, the Mustangs only came out on top of the year-end race once, in 2023-24, to claim the program’s first Commissioner’s Cup. 
 

Second place in the fall Cup standings goes to UC Santa Barbara, who earned the top points for men’s soccer as a regular-season tri-champion and finished as Big West Championship runners-up. Another fall highlight for the Gauchos was a tie for second in women’s volleyball as UCSB accumulated an average of 141.1 points across all six Big West fall sports.  
 

UC Davis lands in third through fall competition with 135.0 points. The Aggies claimed their first-ever Big West women’s volleyball regular-season title and ran away from the cross country championships with a pair of top-four finishes and the men’s individual title for Muhammed Ahmed. Men’s water polo took home The Big West Championship title and represented the league in the National Collegiate Championship. 
 

Reigning Commissioner’s Cup champion UC Irvine holds fourth position at 122.8 points with regular-season tri-champion status and the Big West title for men’s soccer and a women’s cross country runner-up finish in the books to highlight the fall for the Anteaters. 
 

Seven teams are above the 100-point threshold with Long Beach State (114.0), Cal State Fullerton (110.0) and CSUN (104.0) close in the standings in fifth through seventh. The Beach claimed the men’s water polo regular-season crown with the Matadors taking home the regular-season hardware in women’s soccer to round out the fall team champions. 
 

UC San Diego lands in eighth at 93.3 points followed by Hawai’i (80.0), Cal State Bakersfield (65.0) and UC Riverside (56.0) to round out the standings. 
 

Six departments have claimed the Commissioner’s Cup since its inception 27 years ago. Recent history has seen back-to-back first-time winners in UC Irvine (2024-25) and Cal Poly (2023-24). UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State each have 10 to fill the trophy case. Cal State Fullerton has hoisted the trophy once and former member Pacific earned the first two Commissioner’s Cups. Two Cups were not awarded, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. 
 

In determining a victor for the Dennis Farrell Big West Commissioner’s Cup, points are awarded based on either regular-season finish or Big West postseason results in all 21 conference-sponsored sports, and the member-institution with the highest average point total is declared the winner.   
 

Regular-season finish determines the designated point tallies in baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, tennis, indoor volleyball and water polo. In the sports of cross country, golf, track & field, women’s beach volleyball and swimming and diving, the points are awarded based on finish at each respective Big West Championship. In the case of ties in all sports, points are awarded by combining points and dividing them equally among the tied teams.  
 

For the sport-by-sport breakdown and to view the history of the Dennis Farrell Big West Commissioner’s Cup, please visit bigwest.org/CommissionersCup.