I have absolutely nothing against St Thomas, but if I was coaching the Gophers, I would never schedule them. Other than a slight uptick in one game for attendance, I see that as a lose-lose situation for the U of M. While just far-off rumors at this point, it makes sense for the Big East to contact them one day to possibly join (private school, Twin Cities market, huge alumni presence, location to the other west schools of the conference (Creighton, Marquette, DePaul). Why help them in their transition to D1? All of a sudden they could be the cream of the Summit League with a new basketball arena planned, rolling their way to a Big East invite and... if getting accepted... making it even harder to recruit Minnesota kids for the Gophers. If they didn't check all those Big East boxes, I'd have no problem playing them.