St. Thomas - Are They Hosed?

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Does anyone have any insight they can share about St. Thomas? Are they going to end up without a Division to play sports, let alone a conference? Do they still have the money to go Division I? Could they lose their entire athletics department because they have no place to go?
 

As of right now they’re still d3
I think they’re likely to be d3 for the foreseeable future. As an independent is my guess.
 


What is prompting this thread?

They've already been accepted by the Summit League. A vote was held, and they were accepted, pending NCAA approval.

Just waiting for NCAA approval. Instead of granting a waiver, the NCAA decided to work on a process for any DIII school that can prove capable to jump straight to DI, should it desire. I think they also had schools like Johns Hopkins, UChicago, WashU, etc. in mind, should those change their minds on athletics.

As far as I know, that new process will be voted on by the NCAA this month.
 

Conferences are asking for a moratorium on adding new schools to Division I. Also, St. Thomas' needs a lot of money to make the move. Do they still have the ability to get it done?
 


TruthSeeker said:
Conferences are asking for a moratorium on adding new schools to Division I. Also, St. Thomas' needs a lot of money to make the move. Do they still have the ability to get it done?
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They can ask. Let's see if that happens.

They had the money when they were voted on and accepted by the Summit League. What changed?
 

St Thomas has told their faculty it is on pause
 


Word said:
Well they had no TV contract and no fans. Not sure how the pandemic affects them!
Click to expand...

That's one thing about St. Thomas I haven't quite grasped. I belive they wanted to move on at some point ... but word has it attendance isn't great, so were they just going to fund changes with donors and hope the people would then come?
 



A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
That's one thing about St. Thomas I haven't quite grasped. I belive they wanted to move on at some point ... but word has it attendance isn't great, so were they just going to fund changes with donors and hope the people would then come?
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Selling out a 5k arena for basketball is never going to balance the budget of a DI low-major school, especially one with non-scholarship football. They'll probably be at like $10-15M per year or more, considering they have hockey too?

Very much a "if you want nice things, you pay for them" deal. Like a student rec center, a nice library, etc.
 

MplsGopher said:
Selling out a 5k arena for basketball is never going to balance the budget of a DI low-major school, especially one with non-scholarship football. They'll probably be at like $10-15M per year or more, considering they have hockey too?

Very much a "if you want nice things, you pay for them" deal. Like a student rec center, a nice library, etc.
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Good point.

It is interesting, just paying more to get to the summit league for football and who knows what else?

Strange game.
 

Not even Summit League in (FCS) football — which is really a combo of the Summit and Missouri Valley, playing under the latter’s brand — but my understanding is it will be the non-scholarship Pioneer League (Drake, Butler among others).
 





Thanks. That would make sense then if the NCAA isn’t going to address it in May with the rest of the stuff, as cv19 related discussion would take precedence.

In my opinion, the tangible, approved Summit League invite should supersede the request for a moratorium on new DI members. NCAA should grant a waiver at least, if they approve a new moratorium and shelve new DIII to DI legislation.

Could have interesting implications for Augustana (Sioux Falls), if UST is left in limbo. They’re also trying to join the Summit, which is defacto the new North Central.
 

I have been to at least two high stakes basketball playoff games at UST (both vs Gustavus) where Gustavus fans have outnumbered St. Thomas fans by more than a 3 to 1 margin. There is only one athletic event per season that draws the UST student interest: The football game against St. John's. I have often thought that the jump to D1 would draw their fans in and finally grow their ticket sales. As stated, it is on pause now. If they remain in D3, the athletic programs will continue to be ignored despite their success.
 

No one cares about DIII sports, mostly. Especially not in an urban area with pro sports and Big Ten sports.

Now a Marquette vs Wisconsin level matchup, people would care about. The Summit League won't be that, but it's a chance to maybe take that step in time.
 

This talks about the proposed moratorium. Basically, the G5 and FCS want to be able to spend less and potentially have fewer sports for the next 2-4 years and reading between the lines don't want new members joining under those requirements. I would think if a school committed to meeting today's requirements that this would not be an issue. Also, there is no assurance the NCAA will accept all of the requests (some I'm sure they will, others I doubt, personally).

www.espn.com

Schools ask NCAA to relax member requirements

More Division I schools have asked the NCAA to relax its requirements for membership in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 


Word said:
Well they had no TV contract and no fans. Not sure how the pandemic affects them!
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I'm confused. TV contract...for what? seriously. 99.998% of Minnesotans do not care anything about st thomas. Seriously.

I'll add this. Why do people keep bringing up st thomas on this message board?
 


harley_gopher said:
I'm confused. TV contract...for what? seriously. 99.998% of Minnesotans do not care anything about st thomas. Seriously.

I'll add this. Why do people keep bringing up st thomas on this message board?
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They may have gone to school there or had a son or daughter that did or does. I am not from here but the only reason i care is that it would be great to have another D1 team in the state.
 

harley_gopher said:
I'm confused. TV contract...for what? seriously. 99.998% of Minnesotans do not care anything about st thomas. Seriously.

I'll add this. Why do people keep bringing up st thomas on this message board?
Click to expand...
Why do people keep bringing up North Dakota State on this message board?
 


They were big fish in a little pond and did nothing on the national level in the play offs.
Now they are just another fish trying to get in a slightly bigger pond because the little fish in the little pond kicked them out.
Why does what happens to St thomas get on a Gopher board?
 

builtbadgers said:
They may have gone to school there or had a son or daughter that did or does. I am not from here but the only reason i care is that it would be great to have another D1 team in the state.
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st thomas is far far away from being D1 school.
 


harley_gopher said:
I'm confused. TV contract...for what? seriously. 99.998% of Minnesotans do not care anything about st thomas. Seriously.

I'll add this. Why do people keep bringing up st thomas on this message board?
Click to expand...
Because this is a gopher message board
Gophers are a college team.
UST is probably the second most influential college program in the state of Minnesota (Duluth people can debate me)
 

harley_gopher said:
I'm confused. TV contract...for what? seriously. 99.998% of Minnesotans do not care anything about st thomas. Seriously.

I'll add this. Why do people keep bringing up st thomas on this message board?
Click to expand...

If/when they become D1, while not necessarily rooting for them I will likely tune into some games or attend a few.

If you don't care, that's fine, but is it really that hard to ignore a thread that indicates what it's about in the title?
 

They brought things upon themselves with the football program recruiting way above the level of the MIAC football schools. There was a sense of unfairness and jealousy among many member schools.

Saint Thomas University no longer fit the mold of what a MIAC member school is. They are beyond a liberal arts institution.

They dominated the George Durenberger/Pat Weisner All Sports Trophies including winning them twelve straight years.

www.miacathletics.com

All-Sports Competition History

All-Sports Competition History
www.miacathletics.com www.miacathletics.com
 
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