St. Thomas headed to Summit League

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Wow indeed. Good for them. It will be great to finally have another D1 basketball program in state.

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Wow indeed. Good for them. It will be great to finally have another D1 basketball program in state.

Go Gophers!!
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I agree. Gophers wont have excuse anymore of being the only D1 basketball school.

I will be going to some games.

When do they make the move?
 

This is awesome. I always thought it was embarassing that a state of our size had only one D1 program.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
I agree. Gophers wont have excuse anymore of being the only D1 basketball school.

I will be going to some games.

When do they make the move?
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Potentially 2021. I'm guessing they will then be FCS for football
 


JimmyJamesMD said:
When do they make the move?
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The link to the press release from UST is not working. It does say they've received an invitation from the Summit League. I would assume St. Thomas will accept it. As far as basketball, schools reclassifying their athletic programs to D1 aren't eligible for the NCAA Tournament until their 5th season. So if St. Thomas starts its reclassification next school year (2020-21), Tommies will eligible for March Madness in 2024-25. Seems to me, though, that it usually ends up sooner, perhaps the 3rd year if the school has hit all the marks on the NCAA's protocols for making the switch.
 

The University of St. Thomas announced Friday that the school has been invited to join the Division I Summit League, pending NCAA approval of the school’s wavier claim.

The NCAA requires a waiver to go directly from Division III to Division I without a stop at Division II. If the waiver is approved, the school will join the Summit League in 2021. The Tommies would then have two more years in the MIAC, which voted St. Thomas out of the conference earlier this year.

“Joining the Summit League would be a unique and exciting opportunity for St. Thomas, allowing us to significantly expand our impact and reach,” St. Thomas president Julie Sullivan said in the announcement. “It is a strong Midwest Division I conference that includes both public and private competitors."

Under the direction of Commissioner Tom Douple, the conference has grown in strength and success over the past several years. “If the NCAA ultimately grants the waiver request, St. Thomas will begin competing in the Summit League in fall 2021, after two full final years in the MIAC.”

http://www.startribune.com/st-thomas-to-get-invite-to-join-division-i-summit-league/562174952/
 

Football likely Pioneer League

I've seen reports move to Summit League is all sports except football (Summit doesn't have FB). Sounds like the Pioneer League for football:

Butler
Davidson
Dayton
Drake
Jacksonville
Marist
Morehead State
San Diego
Stetson
Valpo

Tommies certainly should be able to compete favorably in that league.
 

SelectionSunday said:
I've seen reports move to Summit League is all sports except football (Summit doesn't have FB). Sounds like the Pioneer League for football:

Butler
Davidson
Dayton
Drake
Jacksonville
Marist
Morehead State
San Diego
Stetson
Valpo

Tommies certainly should be able to compete favorably in that league.
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Wow. That is an extremely wide travel area for them for football. North Carolina, Florida, New York, Kentucky and California. They're going to be spending some $$$ on football travel. Would also guess they will need to expand their seating capacity for football. I believe it's listed as 5,000 now, but I'm nearly positive there is an NCAA capacity minimum of at least 10,000 for FCS
 



Check that, looks like the seating minimum is only for FBS football. My bad.
 

This definitely lends some legitimacy to the idea that the whole “thrown out of the MIAC” thing may have been a little more orchestrated than we thought...

Not necessarily saying I think the whole thing was planned, but I remember a couple people on here bringing that up and I thought they were nuts. Maybe not
 

bizzle22 said:
This definitely lends some legitimacy to the idea that the whole “thrown out of the MIAC” thing may have been a little more orchestrated than we thought...

Not necessarily saying I think the whole thing was planned, but I remember a couple people on here bringing that up and I thought they were nuts. Maybe not
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I would say it is certainly possible that they had this in mind but on a much longer timetable.
When the rumors of getting kicked out circulated. No doubt in my mind when they said they wanted to stay they were telling the truth in the short term. They’re probably okay with it long term.
 

November 5, 2021 (a Friday)

St. Thomas @ Minnesota

As part of a DH featuring the WBB & MBB teams welcoming the Tommie to D-I

Book it:rolleyes:
 
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Where will they play?

I'm in the minority. I don't like it. Splits the D-1 fan base in Minnesota. I guess it will generate a lot of interest for one game a year locally, but it might be a high risk game that could lower their NET score.
 


Holy Man said:
Where will they play?

I'm in the minority. I don't like it. Splits the D-1 fan base in Minnesota. I guess it will generate a lot of interest for one game a year locally, but it might be a high risk game that could lower their NET score.
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In their campus gym they play in now? There are a number of the smaller D1 hoops programs that have gyms that seat 2,000 or less.
 

WriterGoph said:
In their campus gym they play in now? There are a number of the smaller D1 hoops programs that have gyms that seat 2,000 or less.
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I think the arena is about 3,000 or so, maybe less, currently. Doesn't seem possible to expand. It's a good deal for the Summit getting a team from a big media market. It could help TV contracts, etc. We'll see. I won't be marking my calendar for any Tommie games in person or on TV.
 

Holy Man said:
Where will they play?

I'm in the minority. I don't like it. Splits the D-1 fan base in Minnesota. I guess it will generate a lot of interest for one game a year locally, but it might be a high risk game that could lower their NET score.
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Right now, probably the 2,000 seat Anderson Athletic Complex arena. That would be the 2nd smallest in the league

Here are the arena sizes for MBB

Denver - 7,200
North Dakota - 3,300
NDSU - 5,830
Omaha - 7,898
Oral Roberts - 10,575
Purdue Ft Wayne - 1,800
USD - 6,000
SDSU - 6,500
W. Illinois - 5,139
 

Holy Man said:
Where will they play?

I'm in the minority. I don't like it. Splits the D-1 fan base in Minnesota. I guess it will generate a lot of interest for one game a year locally, but it might be a high risk game that could lower their NET score.
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What? Not in any meaningful way.
 

I don't know how I feel about this. Someone else posted that it was embarrassing that a state this size only had one D1 school. I completely disagree. One team that represented the entire state was pretty cool in my opinion, not to mention very rare in college sports. Oh well. Happy for St. Thomas.
 

Lot's of nice big venues close to campus. I would guess they'll play games at a variety of arenas, and should have a nice starting fanbase.
 

Holy Man said:
Where will they play?

I'm in the minority. I don't like it. Splits the D-1 fan base in Minnesota. I guess it will generate a lot of interest for one game a year locally, but it might be a high risk game that could lower their NET score.
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Maybe in like 10 years if they actually become a decent team by D1 standards.
 

Holy Man said:
Where will they play?

I'm in the minority. I don't like it. Splits the D-1 fan base in Minnesota. I guess it will generate a lot of interest for one game a year locally, but it might be a high risk game that could lower their NET score.
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Has being the only D-1 fanbase really been that meaningful/helpful for the Gophers in the past 50 yrs? If this is an "obstacle" Minnesota is not able to overcome than there really is no point in competing an a Power 5 Conference.
 

As a giant Gophers fan I see 0 upside in this for the U. Do I think we will lose out on all kinds of recruits/fans? No, but there is now another option. If the Gophers are say 4-12 in Big ten play and have Ohio St coming in on a Wednesday night, meanwhile across town UST is 14-1 in conf and has NDSU coming in at 12-2, I can see some people going over to UST for a night of bball. Or the recruit who is dead set on staying in MN but is very faith based and not interested in a huge campus/school now has an option to play D1 and not go to say Marquette or Creighton.

I don't know specifics but look for example at Trey Lance at NDSU. I am sure his options were, well maybe get some run at the U or be the starting QB at a FCS powerhouse, he chose the later and took away the U as an option. Had NDSU not been there who knows, maybe he just goes to the U in a smaller role. Those guys are not the Ty Johnson's/Oturu's of the world but you miss out on 2 guys who are really good 5th/6th men on the bball team that take you from having a good year to a great year.

Good for UST but as a Gophers fan I am certainly seeing them as "objects in the rear view mirror are closer than they appear".
 

leib0039 said:
As a giant Gophers fan I see 0 upside in this for the U. Do I think we will lose out on all kinds of recruits/fans? No, but there is now another option. If the Gophers are say 4-12 in Big ten play and have Ohio St coming in on a Wednesday night, meanwhile across town UST is 14-1 in conf and has NDSU coming in at 12-2, I can see some people going over to UST for a night of bball. Or the recruit who is dead set on staying in MN but is very faith based and not interested in a huge campus/school now has an option to play D1 and not go to say Marquette or Creighton.

I don't know specifics but look for example at Trey Lance at NDSU. I am sure his options were, well maybe get some run at the U or be the starting QB at a FCS powerhouse, he chose the later and took away the U as an option. Had NDSU not been there who knows, maybe he just goes to the U in a smaller role. Those guys are not the Ty Johnson's/Oturu's of the world but you miss out on 2 guys who are really good 5th/6th men on the bball team that take you from having a good year to a great year.

Good for UST but as a Gophers fan I am certainly seeing them as "objects in the rear view mirror are closer than they appear".
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If they are faith based they won't go to St Thomas. [emoji57]
 

leib0039 said:
As a giant Gophers fan I see 0 upside in this for the U. Do I think we will lose out on all kinds of recruits/fans? No, but there is now another option. If the Gophers are say 4-12 in Big ten play and have Ohio St coming in on a Wednesday night, meanwhile across town UST is 14-1 in conf and has NDSU coming in at 12-2, I can see some people going over to UST for a night of bball. Or the recruit who is dead set on staying in MN but is very faith based and not interested in a huge campus/school now has an option to play D1 and not go to say Marquette or Creighton..
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If the Gophers are 4-12 in the Big 10, the AD, Coaches and Admin will have much bigger problems than worrying about the Tommies playing the same night.
 

leib0039 said:
As a giant Gophers fan I see 0 upside in this for the U. Do I think we will lose out on all kinds of recruits/fans? No, but there is now another option. If the Gophers are say 4-12 in Big ten play and have Ohio St coming in on a Wednesday night, meanwhile across town UST is 14-1 in conf and has NDSU coming in at 12-2, I can see some people going over to UST for a night of bball. Or the recruit who is dead set on staying in MN but is very faith based and not interested in a huge campus/school now has an option to play D1 and not go to say Marquette or Creighton.

I don't know specifics but look for example at Trey Lance at NDSU. I am sure his options were, well maybe get some run at the U or be the starting QB at a FCS powerhouse, he chose the later and took away the U as an option. Had NDSU not been there who knows, maybe he just goes to the U in a smaller role. Those guys are not the Ty Johnson's/Oturu's of the world but you miss out on 2 guys who are really good 5th/6th men on the bball team that take you from having a good year to a great year.

Good for UST but as a Gophers fan I am certainly seeing them as "objects in the rear view mirror are closer than they appear".
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I agree its not good for the U. I mean it probably won't really negatively affect us but it definitely won't help us either.

I don't expect them to compete with us for top recruits or anything but even if the gophers lose so much as a potential walk-on to UST that otherwise would have came here, that will be too much for me and I will be pissed.

And it sounds like no more Tommi-Johnnie football unfortunately. I was hoping we'd be able to continue that even if St. Thomas was in the UW conference.

Bad for St. John's, bad for the U. Don't like it.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
This is awesome. I always thought it was embarassing that a state of our size had only one D1 program.
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I've always thought that was a good thing and was something I took pride in.

Coaches and analysts always mention how we are the only D1 school in the state as a benefit when talking about the positives of this coaching job. That was one of the first things Pitino said about us when he came here. And it was a good thing.
 

die hard gopher said:
I agree its not good for the U. I mean it probably won't really negatively affect us but it definitely won't help us either.
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Perhaps the competition will spur on the Gophers to get better. Not just on the field but off the field as well such as marketing.
 

Pretty cool. Hope we can get them on the schedule.
 

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