Shooter: There’s buzz that the University of St. Thomas ultimately could end up in the Big East Conference.

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BleedGopher

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per Shooter:

There’s buzz that the University of St. Thomas, still seeking Division I Summit League approval for 2021, ultimately could end up in the Big East Conference.

The Tommies’ move from Division III is expected to increase its $5 million annual athletics budget to nearly $25 million. That includes the Division I Pioneer League for football. St. Thomas’ football budget last season was $1.06 million. The Summit League does not sponsor hockey, and the Tommies hockey programs could still end up in the WCHA.

During the decade beginning in 2010, St. Thomas’ .871 winning percentage was sixth among more than 660 NCAA programs. That’s the top 1 percent, better than Ohio State (.854) and Clemson (836).

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Go Gophers!!
 



builtbadgers said:
That would be great for the state to have a team in the Big East.
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Maybe some on here do, but I don't care about that being great for the state. That would not be great for the Gophers. Hopefully, they could still rise above and make St. Thomas' presence in the Big East irrelevant.
 



Gopherlife said:
Maybe some on here do, but I don't care about that being great for the state. That would not be great for the Gophers. Hopefully, they could still rise above and make St. Thomas' presence in the Big East irrelevant.
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Competition creates a better product. I've always personally felt that being he only D1 school can allow us to be complacent. Doesn't effect Wisconsin or Iowa negatively that Marquette and Iowa State exist.
 

manderson1984 said:
Competition creates a better product. I've always personally felt that being he only D1 school can allow us to be complacent. Doesn't effect Wisconsin or Iowa negatively that Marquette and Iowa State exist.
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We have no idea how WI or IA would be without the presence of Marquette or Iowa State. I think there's plenty of competition from the neighboring states and the rest of the Big Ten and other conferences as it is. Either way, I will not be cheering for St. Thomas to do well. I have no attachment to them.
 


Gopherlife said:
We have no idea how WI or IA would be without the presence of Marquette or Iowa State. I think there's plenty of competition from the neighboring states and the rest of the Big Ten and other conferences as it is. Either way, I will not be cheering for St. Thomas to do well. I have no attachment to them.
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Generally speaking UW fans do not cheer for Marquette but the rivalry is intense. Plus both UWGB AND UWM was a proving ground for great coaches on a larger stage. As UWGB gor really good it made UW get better. I t created far more interest in youth programs,helped for coaching opportunities, better clinics.
 



St Paul and St Louis are good Catholic markets that the Big East should pick up.

Obviously UST isn't anywhere close right now. In time, perhaps. Playing at the Xcel Center would be something, if they could get enough interest for a few big games per year.

St Louis U is ready, right now, and would be a nice bridge to Omaha for the rest of the conference.
 

It gives the non white kids a State school to play when uw won’t take a look.
 


I'm starting to get the feeling that nobody knows what to do with St. Thomas at the moment.

From a financial and geographic standpoint, the Summit League makes the most sense. But it leaves their football and hockey programs without a home, which remains an issue for those programs.

Joining the Big East would raise their profile quite a bit, but would still leave football and hockey swinging in the breeze. And with the WCHA men's league all but imploding, the hockey issue remains something of a mystery, so stay tuned there.

Frankly, I'm surprised official membership to the Summit hasn't been approved yet. The league seemed pretty excited about the whole thing since they offered St. Thomas a spot months ago. Now there seems to be some holdup on making it formal, which leads me to wonder what is happening behind the scenes. Maybe it's COVID related since everybody's priorities have taken a turn since the shutdown?

Anyway, it'll interesting to see what happens not only to St. Thomas overall, but their football and hockey programs.
 




Gopherlife said:
We have no idea how WI or IA would be without the presence of Marquette or Iowa State. I think there's plenty of competition from the neighboring states and the rest of the Big Ten and other conferences as it is. Either way, I will not be cheering for St. Thomas to do well. I have no attachment to them.
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We know they do better than us and it’s amazing how much more quickly those donations come when the school up the road gets a new toy. It helps and creates pressure to not accept mediocrity
 

Parcival said:
Jesus Built take a joke man. It's pretty well-known that Bucky always has more than a fair share of white players so it's not even in that poor of taste.
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Sorry, i do not take those comments lightly and think they are done in very poor taste. They recruit specifically to win games with kids that do not get in trouble. That decision has nothing to do with the color of someones skin. They did not recruit Koenig because he was native, they recruited him to fit. Recruiting there is just as tough as it is here, they miss a ton of high end state kids but the find kids that fit what they do. Maybe it is just a bad joke once but after it has been posted a few times , what kind of person is laughing ?
 

builtbadgers said:
Sorry, i do not take those comments lightly and think they are done in very poor taste. They recruit specifically to win games with kids that do not get in trouble. That decision has nothing to do with the color of someones skin. They did not recruit Koenig because he was native, they recruited him to fit. Recruiting there is just as tough as it is here, they miss a ton of high end state kids but the find kids that fit what they do. Maybe it is just a bad joke once but after it has been posted a few times , what kind of person is laughing ?
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No one here seriously thinks Wisconsin recruits based on skin color. Something about the UW program/brand is very appealing to suburban white kids, however.
 

Parcival said:
No one here seriously thinks Wisconsin recruits based on skin color. Something about the UW program/brand is very appealing to suburban white kids, however.
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Great coaching, program that wins at a elite level, only game in town, great school, beautiful campus, true campus life. Same things that that Devin Harris like, Alando Tucker, Kam and Jordan Taylor,Hayes ,Linton, Duany,Davis brothers, Landry, Boone and on and on. Obviously not for everyone. They simply target recruits that fit.
 

builtbadgers said:
Great coaching, program that wins at a elite level, only game in town, great school, beautiful campus, true campus life. Same things that that Devin Harris like, Alando Tucker, Kam and Jordan Taylor,Hayes ,Linton, Duany,Davis brothers, Landry, Boone and on and on. Obviously not for everyone. They simply target recruits that fit.
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Thanks for listing all the recent African American players who have played at Wisconsin. I thought Greg Gard and Bo Ryan were closet racists who only recruit white players.
 

Your welcome. Wanted you to know that UW is appealing to a lot of people from a lot of places, no matter the color. You had only mentioned white suburban.
 

builtbadgers said:
Your welcome. Wanted you to know that UW is appealing to a lot of people from a lot of places, no matter the color. You had only mentioned white suburban.
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Because we were talking about a joke regarding the UW's above-average level of white players. Clearly how the program is run and all the other stuff you listed appeals to white suburban kids.

We regularly lose guys like Reuvers, Carlson, Crowl, Wahl, etc. to Bucky and those are local kids from Minnesota. I don't think any of these players are big misses and could care less about the color of their skin but it isn't racist to state facts.
 


The little birdies I know at st Thomas have told me that they’ve been told of a pause in the d1 jump due to financial issues directly related to coronavirus.
So it’s a really odd time to have a buzz coming from shooter
 


Though it seems a fit based on being a Catholic University of relative means... the suggestion that a school can NOT ONLY skip NAIA and D2 and go directly to D1 and then have the Sam Cassell like stones to think they will not just function as a low D1 but have such sustained success to join a P6 conference is fairly pie in the sky, no?

Like a guy that has never had a date... has a girl that says she’ll go on a date with him and now he’s saying... think I might date a super model next.
 



RTB-87 said:
Though it seems a fit based on being a Catholic University of relative means... the suggestion that a school can NOT ONLY skip NAIA and D2 and go directly to D1 and then have the Sam Cassell like stones to think they will not just function as a low D1 but have such sustained success to join a P6 conference is fairly pie in the sky, no?

Like a guy that has never had a date... has a girl that says she’ll go on a date with him and now he’s saying... think I might date a super model next.
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NAIA isn't a step between DIII and DII, it's separate from the NCAA altogether. Also, there is no reason that a school should have to go to DII before going to DI, from DIII, in my opinion. Again, it's not necessarily a differentiation based on competition level, rather a differentiation based on philosophy of the school (no-scholarships, no year-round training, etc.).

I think UST can do fine in basketball in the Summit League. They have no business going directly to the Big East, and I doubt that any sane person thinks that's an actual possibility.

Creighton, Butler, and Xavier have all been DI since at least the late 70's (probably earlier, but that's all I cared to look back) -- Creighton in the Missouri Valley and Butler and Xavier in the precursor to the Horizon League and then the A10.

UST is actually on par or superior to all three schools, in terms of endowment and market. It just has no experience with DI athletics. Very late to that game.
 

My point was more so related to scholarships, recruiting, philosophy of an institution, etc.

To that end, clearly a gradual transition first to any degree of relevance in the Summit would be the reasonable concept.

I do think they could be very successful in the Summit. Significant recruiting advantage as compared to peers.
 

They will have their hands full competing with the Dakotas. Lot of bball pride in those schools and they recruit 2* type players from the cities and MN every year. Summit is run out of Sioux Falls and that city has the bball tourny on lockdown, with awesome new facilities. And it's a one bid league, even if you win high 20's games in the season, you gotta win the tourny.

That said, it's not like DePaul was burning up the CUSA (though they happened to have a nice year in 2003-04, maybe at the perfect timing). So the Big East is aware of market potential.
 

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