Bushnell Cup voting explained

After many questions as to how exactly the Bushnell Cup is awarded and how the four finalists are chosen: an answer, with much thanks to the always-helpful Scottie Rogers of the Ivy League office.

For starters, the voting is as it has been for quite some time. The only thing that changed was how the award was presented, with four finalists being named and then the award given to the winner(s) at the ceremony Monday.

The process begins when each coach nominates his own players for the award. Then all of the coaches votes among the nominated players, but not for players from his team. The coaches pick their top three, with first place getting five points, second getting three points and third gets one point. (This system is the same for all Ivy sports with similar awards).

This is where the presentation changed this year: based on the point totals, the top X candidates are considered "finalists" for the Bushnell Cup. That X can change each year depending on how the voting goes. This year, based on the point totals, four players (Billy Ragone, Gino Gordon, Matt Schwieger and Trey Peacock) were considered finalists. The original plan, according to Rogers, was to have three finalists, but based on the way voting happened this year, four were named.

Basically, the "finalists" are for show. The award is already determined before they are announced, based on the coaches' ranked voting.