They could possibly go D1 for hockey and basketball, where do they play, how long before they break even.
Anderson Athletic Center seats 2000. While small, many schools in lesser leagues only have 1000+ seats. Sacramento St plays in a gym that doesn’t even seat 1000. It would be usable for the Summit Conference, but if it wanted to move up to the Horizon or MVC, they would have a have another place to play.
St Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights only has seating on one side. For DI, that arena would need to be expanded to the other which think is possible.
For football, Allianz Field would be used for big games.
The Tommies have too many sports for DI. They only need 14 and have 22. Cutting eight non revenue ones like M/W swimming, baseball and M/W tennis that they will never be a power in would be wise.
But they should add M/W lacrosse and become the first DI school to offer it in Minnesota.
For private schools and even public, DI sports are a major cause of charitable contributions. In addition, St Thomas would become known throughout the nation, not just MSP, if it wins. DIII means a school must be exceptional for recognition. DI provides another vehicle for recognition that can’t be reproduced but by a multimillion advertising campaign. The NEC is almost all small Catholic schools in the North East that use tiny gyms. Merrimack just moved up to entirely DI (had DI hockey before) and they only have 1200 seats. The bar for DI is number of sports (14), not gym size or endowment size.
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