2016 Cup fall standings

The race for the Semoball Cup is one-third finished and tight.

The fall season featured nine area teams placing fourth or better at a state championship event.

The Cup will presented July 9 to the school with the most successful season based on a formula that takes into account the combined winning percentage of all sports teams plus bonus points for advancement in postseason play for both teams and individuals. The bonus points are divided by the number of teams a school fields so that schools of all sizes can compete against each other.

Here's the top 25 schools through the fall season:

1. Bernie 203.33

2. St. Vincent 172.54

3. Notre Dame 155.77

4. Malden 155.28

5. Westwood 150.00

6 Chaffee 112.65

7. Jackson 105.92

8. Portageville 105.73

9. Bloomfield 103.73

10. Van Buren 102.76

11. Cape Central 99.32

12. Perryville 98.11

13. Gideon 75.31

14. Greenville 72.91

15. Woodland 69.61

16. Dexter 68.91

17. Kennett 67.14

18. Holcomb 66.67

19. Advance 66.61

20. Saxony 65.50

21. Bell City 63.04

22. Poplar Bluff 61.47

23. New Madrid 60.65

24. Zalma 60.27

25. Senath 57.78

With only the fall sports represented, the standings will be a bit skewed toward smaller schools that have only one or two sports represented so far. Fall baseball does not have a postseason so schools that field a team do not have their total points divided by that sport until the spring.

This is why Bernie's point total is so much higher. The Mules placed third at state in volleyball, earning 125 points, while the other sport (fall baseball was 21-1) does not kick in until the spring. If it did, the Mules would rank 5th at 140.83.

St. Vincent is similar with its runner-up and 8th-place finishes at state in cross country. The volleyball team also reached the playoffs while only playing football.

Notre Dame, last year's winner of the cup, featured two playoff teams (softball placed second at state), two more that played for a district title and four individual sports that had state qualifiers, including four all-state honors.

Cape Central had an outstanding fall reaching the state semifinals in football and placing third at state in swimming with five all-state honors and a state champion. But the Tigers were hurt by a .283 winning percentage by the total program (football had the most wins).

Also, Westwood Baptist joined the standings after finishing second at the state tournament in soccer. The non-MSHSAA member was given postseason points based on the number of wins needed to reach the championship game.

Finally, two schools -- Delta and Scott Central -- do not field fall sports while 28 of the 54 that do finished above 50 points, meaning half of the area schools had a winning fall season.

Bernie, Van Buren, Malden, Notre Dame and Greenville all had winning percentages above 70.0 while 24 schools earned postseason points.

The standings will be updated again when the Semoball Awards winter teams will be announced.

Here's how the Semoball Cup ended up last year.