St. Thomas to Summit League down the road?

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SelectionSunday

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Will the dominoes fall this way?

Today Purdue-Fort Wayne will announce it's leaving the Summit League for the Horizon League (makes sense geographically). That will bring the Summit's membership count down to 8.

However. ...

Augustana (SD) has already announced its plan to move up to Division I. The Summit League -- already populated with former North Central Conference (NCC) institutions North Dakota, North Dakota State, Omaha, South Dakota, and South Dakota State -- seems like a logical landing spot for Auggie. If that occurs, the Summit is back at 9 members.

But the best number for a conference to have is 10. It's the perfect number for basketball scheduling, anyways. And that's where long-ago charter NCC member St. Thomas comes into the picture. Won't be surprised at all if the Tommies become the 10th member of the Summit League within a 5- to 10-year period, sooner rather than later if the NCAA switches gears and allows them to serve their transitional period to Division I without first having to spend a cup of coffee in Division II.

Tommie football presumably could play in the Missouri Valley Conference, and I'm sure the hockey program, at least initially, could find a spot in one of the fledgling DI puck conferences.
 

There is a chance it happens, but it has nothing to do with Fort Wayne leaving. If the optimal number is 10 and that’s why they want st Thomas, they’ll find someone else in way less than 5-10 years.
 

Some guy said:
There is a chance it happens, but it has nothing to do with Fort Wayne leaving. If the optimal number is 10 and that’s why they want st Thomas, they’ll find someone else in way less than 5-10 years.
Click to expand...

Yes, I know PFW leaving has nothing to do with St. Thomas. Just showing how the dominoes could line up nicely for the Tomcats.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Will the dominoes fall this way?

Today Purdue-Fort Wayne will announce it's leaving the Summit League for the Horizon League (makes sense geographically). That will bring the Summit's membership count down to 8.

However. ...

Augustana (SD) has already announced its plan to move up to Division I. The Summit League -- already populated with former North Central Conference (NCC) institutions North Dakota, North Dakota State, Omaha, South Dakota, and South Dakota State -- seems like a logical landing spot for Auggie. If that occurs, the Summit is back at 9 members.

But the best number for a conference to have is 10. It's the perfect number for basketball scheduling, anyways. And that's where long-ago charter NCC member St. Thomas comes into the picture. Won't be surprised at all if the Tommies become the 10th member of the Summit League within a 5- to 10-year period, sooner rather than later if the NCAA switches gears and allows them to serve their transitional period to Division I without first having to spend a cup of coffee in Division II.

Tommie football presumably could play in the Missouri Valley Conference, and I'm sure the hockey program, at least initially, could find a spot in one of the fledgling DI puck conferences.
Click to expand...
Won't they be at 9 with UMKC coming back next summer and Augustana would make it 10.
 




Summit
Loss - PFW
Add - UMKC
Potential Adds - UST, Augustana

If UST goes DI to the Summit, football would likely start in the DI FCS non-scholly Pioneer League with Butler, Drake, Valpo, San Diego, etc.
 

i agree with Herd. i'd be fine with UST/Augie maybe in the summit for BB and olympic sports. however, Northern Colorado or New Mexico State are options and better obviously.

NDSU needs to get out of the league and into FBS.

but literally no one wants to take NDSU locally (Mountain West or MAC) because NDSU would be top dog in Football on Day 1 , thats the rub.
 

Herd said:
Summit
Loss - PFW
Add - UMKC
Potential Adds - UST, Augustana

If UST goes DI to the Summit, football would likely start in the DI FCS non-scholly Pioneer League with Butler, Drake, Valpo, San Diego, etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I still don’t think they go d1 but I think I said back in April the only way they go d1 is either pioneer league or dropping football.
 



I actually think having a ‘little brother’ could help the gophers with local recruits. Maybe not any one kid’s opinion would be swayed, but a rivalry would drive up gopher spirit. Any St Thomas’s success would create good competition for the gophers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

bc2211 said:
I actually think having a ‘little brother’ could help the gophers with local recruits. Maybe not any one kid’s opinion would be swayed, but a rivalry would drive up gopher spirit. Any St Thomas’s success would create good competition for the gophers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

All those guys that go to Belmont, dakotas, etc that make the tourney as a 14-16 seed would be fun to have playing at ST Thomas instead. It wouldn’t impact my gopher watching but I’d have a legit second favorite d1 team in hoops.

I think st Thomas could fair well in d1 hoops.
I don’t think st Thomas has the money to play scholarship d1 football honestly.
They have a good donor base for an MIAC school but their endowment is tiny compared to many and their athletic donor base is great d3 but below average d1.
 

Some guy said:
All those guys that go to Belmont, dakotas, etc that make the tourney as a 14-16 seed would be fun to have playing at ST Thomas instead. It wouldn’t impact my gopher watching but I’d have a legit second favorite d1 team in hoops.

I think st Thomas could fair well in d1 hoops.
I don’t think st Thomas has the money to play scholarship d1 football honestly.
They have a good donor base for an MIAC school but their endowment is tiny compared to many and their athletic donor base is great d3 but below average d1.
Click to expand...

Agree w this. They really aren't as flush with cash as some seem to think. They spend more on athletics than other D3 MN schools, but it would take a serious jump in funding (3x-4x what they do now) for them to go D1. Playing D1 scholarship football isn't realistic for them. Pioneer League football could be a great fit if they can figure out the other sports.

Pretty sure hockey would be the first to go if they are interested in D1. Unless they have some hockey-crazy donor that I don't know about.

The best regional comps for UST are Drake/Loyola-Chicago/Valparaiso, and I think ultimately they end up in a similar athletic situation as those schools. Everyone I've talked to with any type of insider connection to UST thinks they want to go D1 eventually.
 

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