And the Winner of Mascot Madness 2016 is….

Another exciting Mascot Madness tournament is complete and now we finally know who New York’s favorite college mascot is. Through tens of thousands of votes, the people have spoken, and this years winner is VICTOR E. KNIGHT! Through a hard-fought battle, SUNY Geneseo’s Victor E. Knight beat Stony Brook’s Wolfie Seawolf, and the numbers were close in this unbelievable final showdown.

The poll shows that the voting went 15,798 to 14,746, leading to an unbelievably tense 3% margin of victory for Victor.

But it was no easy victory! The two mascots were duking it out at the polls and on social media all month long.

Our two finalists were busy competing in the Mascot Madness finals and rooting their athletics programs through playoff success in March. First, Stony Brook men’s basketball won their first America East conference championship and trip to the NCAA tournament. Then, SUNY Geneseo men’s hockey made their second run in three years to the NCAA Division III hockey Frozen Four in Lake Placid. Both great accomplishments and fitting ends to great seasons.

As a whole, this was a great year for Mascot Madness, and all our participants fought hard to show off their school pride. We learned some interesting facts about our mascots through their interviews and we saw our campus communities rally behind their representatives in great, creative ways. Throughout the competition, the levels of campus and community engagement we saw for all participating campuses was awesome. Nearly 100,000 unique votes were cast throughout the tournament.

We saw students, alumni, and communities come together in great showings of pride for our SUNY campuses across New York and the nation. And at the end of the day, that’s exactly what these mascots signed up for when they took the job… To shout and share the greatness of public higher education in New York. Thank you Mascots, for doing what you do. Go SUNY!

Below you can see some of the creative efforts these two finalists, and our other competitors, put out in their effort to be SUNY’s #1 mascot!

Victor E. Knight

Vote for the Geneseo Knight now! https://t.co/aVxg29r0U8 #geneseo2020 @SUNYGeneseo pic.twitter.com/YD2sIP0L41

— Victor E. Knight (@thgeneseoknight) March 22, 2016

Thanks @GeneseoMCU for hosting the arm wrestling tourney @SUNYGeneseo #hottestunioninamerica @CombatArmsports pic.twitter.com/G9CmmVgUZQ

— Victor E. Knight (@thgeneseoknight) February 28, 2015

Wolfie

Help us take @WolfieSeawolf to the #MascotMadness finals! Cast your vote here: https://t.co/HReoO8qV7E pic.twitter.com/4NA5JjtR9E

— Stony Brook Alumni (@stonybrookalum) March 25, 2016

Click: https://t.co/yp8X1HwcS0
Vote for me, and then put in that first email address you made when you were 9 but can’t find a use for now.

— WolfieSeawolf (@WolfieSeawolf) March 25, 2016

Vote for the best Mascot in NEW YORK https://t.co/hSXyvpiN6h #Howl #beLIeve pic.twitter.com/b6V18ewHWP

— Stony Brook Football (@StonyBrookFB) March 10, 2016

Tournament Recap:

We’d like to thank everyone who participated in this year’s competition, from mascots to fans. You can recap the entire tournament, round by round, via the links below:

Round 1– Starting with 39 teams, round 1 kicked off the competition.

Round 2– After some upsets the field was narrowed down to just 16 mascots

Round 3– Just the Elite 8 left in the fight

Final Four– The finals were set as Victor E Knight and Wolfie the Seawolf narrowly defeated their opponents

Finals– In the exciting final round voting went until the very last minute!