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ESF’s Oakie the Acorn Enters SUNY’s Mascot Madness
SYRACUSE - Oakie the Acorn, the mascot of ESF's Mighty Oaks athletic teams, is one of 39 SUNY mascots competing in SUNY's Fourth Annual Mascot Madness beginning today.
All mascots were randomly placed into four SUNY regions and ranked by the number of athletic teams each mascot represents, which determined which mascots compete against each other in each round.
Votes can be cast at http://blog.suny.edu/2016/03/mascot-madness-2016-round-1/
Thirty-nine SUNY campuses representing more than 650 athletic teams and more than 360,000 students are competing for the title of New York's favorite SUNY mascot.
ESF's Oakie is up against Orange County Community College and SUNY Oswego when voting begins March 9.
The competition includes five rounds of voting and runs through March 30. The winning college will take home the traveling Mascot Madness trophy from SUNY.
Last year, Oakie defeated mascots from SUNY Delhi and Ulster Community College to advance to Round 2. However, Oakie fell to New Paltz's Hugo the Hawk in the second round of competition for the second year in a row.
The competition is based on a series of questions posed to the mascots prior to the tournament, including mascots' prior work experience, most embarrassing moment, favorite part of New York state, favorite TV show and favorite class.
Seed rankings are based on the number of teams that represent a particular campus, with enrollment data used to break any ties. Oakie currently represents nine men's and women's teams in ESF's growing athletics program.
The intercollegiate athletics program at ESF can trace its roots all the way back to 1912, the second year of the college's existence, when students organized a Forestry Club on campus that has sponsored an intercollegiate timber sports team every year since.
Today, students can compete on in soccer, golf, cross country, timber sports (Woodsmen's Team), basketball and track. The Mighty Oaks are a member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association.
You can follow Oakie on Twitter at @ESFOakie and on Facebook at Oakie Acorn.