Posted this several weeks ago in the BBall forum, but St Thomas is heading for at least the MVC and maybe the Atlantic 10 or Big East.
St Thomas is no longer a liberal arts school with allegiance to the MIAC. Think they asked to get kicked out so that would satisfy the fans that want to stay DIII.
St Thomas looks like Creighton or Loyola Chicago or Marquette. It’s not Macalester or St Olaf but a STEM, law and business school now and needs to upgrade its standing in those areas nationally.
Hockey can go DI immediately and the other sports will follow by eight years per NCAA rules.
Ideally, an 6000 seat arena should be built near Allianz Field for hockey and basketball. Maybe their rink at Mendota Heights can be expanded, but that’s not a central area, while Allianz is on the metro line.
See St Thomas joining the NCHC with Arizona St. It might take a few years but Arizona St is only now building its on campus arena.
St Thomas will spend eight years in the NSIC DII per rules and then seek DI. The Summit League will offer them, but the MVC offers them after they finish the transition, as the MVC is too stuck up to offer a DII school. The Big East would be the real prize as St Louis U has a major endowment and would like another school out west, Dayton is too close to Xavier so Dayton doesn’t meet the Big East specs. The Twin Cities offers a huge TV market that the Big East would want.
Could foresee some UST games at XCel Center.
The MIAC has been so secretive as they want to do St Thomas a favor. The Gophers will have some local competition.
Private schools in the north most often offer non scholarship DI, like Drake, Valpo, Georgetown etc, so that should not be an issue for the Gophers.