STrib: MIAC rivals plot ouster of St. Thomas

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OP said change bylaws in Apr, boot them in May.

Guessing they got a stay of execution of one meeting cycle, to figure out logistics for what they’re gonna do once booted from MIAC.
 

Gophers_4life said:
OP said change bylaws in Apr, boot them in May.

Guessing they got a stay of execution of one meeting cycle, to figure out logistics for what they’re gonna do once booted from MIAC.
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If they wait too long, then the season starts. It'd be really interesting to see what happens if ST gets to play in the MIAC this year, but they know it's their last season. There could be some historic blowouts, especially against St. Olaf (if the rumors are true and they're the ones really pushing them out).
 

Livingat45north said:
If they wait too long, then the season starts. It'd be really interesting to see what happens if ST gets to play in the MIAC this year, but they know it's their last season. There could be some historic blowouts, especially against St. Olaf (if the rumors are true and they're the ones really pushing them out).
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Maybe St Olaf would give them the middle finger and refuse to play the game?
 


Gophers_4life said:
Maybe St Olaf would give them the middle finger and refuse to play the game?
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Perhaps 3-4 teams will refuse to play them. However my gut feeling is that the coaches are better than that and will play them in the end.
 




AO54 said:
They didn't vote because they never planned to vote.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk
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I fixed it for you. St. Thomas will go when they feel like it.

This whole thing was instigated by 2-3 schools. Jealous, petty, "religious" schools. You can figure out pretty quickly who they are.

The rank and file schools don't care.
 




highwayman said:
I fixed it for you. St. Thomas will go when they feel like it.

This whole thing was instigated by 2-3 schools. Jealous, petty, "religious" schools. You can figure out pretty quickly who they are.

The rank and file schools don't care.
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Somebody should let Macalaster know that they're a religious school.
 

per Shooter:

The way it looks now, Concordia College of Moorhead could be the deciding vote on whether St. Thomas is expelled from the NCAA Division III Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Nine votes from the league’s 13 school presidents are required for expulsion. A vote is expected next month.

Nobody’s talking, but the guess here is that St. Olaf, Carleton, Hamline, Augsburg, Gustavus Adolphus, Macalester, St. Catherine and St. Mary’s would favor ousting St. Thomas. Concordia is thought to be uncommitted.

Insides say nearly all the conference’s coaches want St. Thomas to remain — it’s the school presidents who want the Tommies out.

Meanwhile, perhaps ironically for St. Thomas, Augustana is leaving the Division II Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, which includes nine of its members from Minnesota. St. Thomas insists, though, that it values Division III ideals.

In football in the Northern Sun, St. Thomas might finish among the top half-dozen teams, behind Minnesota State, Minnesota Duluth, Winona State, St. Cloud State and Bemidji State.

https://www.twincities.com/2019/04/20/charley-walters-vikings-to-upgrade-o-line/

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
per Shooter:

The way it looks now, Concordia College of Moorhead could be the deciding vote on whether St. Thomas is expelled from the NCAA Division III Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Nine votes from the league’s 13 school presidents are required for expulsion. A vote is expected next month.

Nobody’s talking, but the guess here is that St. Olaf, Carleton, Hamline, Augsburg, Gustavus Adolphus, Macalester, St. Catherine and St. Mary’s would favor ousting St. Thomas. Concordia is thought to be uncommitted.

Insides say nearly all the conference’s coaches want St. Thomas to remain — it’s the school presidents who want the Tommies out.

Meanwhile, perhaps ironically for St. Thomas, Augustana is leaving the Division II Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, which includes nine of its members from Minnesota. St. Thomas insists, though, that it values Division III ideals.

In football in the Northern Sun, St. Thomas might finish among the top half-dozen teams, behind Minnesota State, Minnesota Duluth, Winona State, St. Cloud State and Bemidji State.

https://www.twincities.com/2019/04/20/charley-walters-vikings-to-upgrade-o-line/

Go Gophers!!
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I would take the "might" out of the sentence "St. Thomas might finish among the top half-dozen teams". They would finish in the top half-dozen, especially with Caruso still there.
 

BleedGopher said:
per Shooter:

The way it looks now, Concordia College of Moorhead could be the deciding vote on whether St. Thomas is expelled from the NCAA Division III Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Nine votes from the league’s 13 school presidents are required for expulsion. A vote is expected next month.

Nobody’s talking, but the guess here is that St. Olaf, Carleton, Hamline, Augsburg, Gustavus Adolphus, Macalester, St. Catherine and St. Mary’s would favor ousting St. Thomas. Concordia is thought to be uncommitted.

Insides say nearly all the conference’s coaches want St. Thomas to remain — it’s the school presidents who want the Tommies out.

Meanwhile, perhaps ironically for St. Thomas, Augustana is leaving the Division II Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, which includes nine of its members from Minnesota. St. Thomas insists, though, that it values Division III ideals.

In football in the Northern Sun, St. Thomas might finish among the top half-dozen teams, behind Minnesota State, Minnesota Duluth, Winona State, St. Cloud State and Bemidji State.

https://www.twincities.com/2019/04/20/charley-walters-vikings-to-upgrade-o-line/

Go Gophers!!
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That’s not what irony is.
Irony is a writer misusing the word irony
 






highwayman said:
I fixed it for you. St. Thomas will go when they feel like it.

This whole thing was instigated by 2-3 schools. Jealous, petty, "religious" schools. You can figure out pretty quickly who they are.

The rank and file schools don't care.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Glad you have this all figured out.
 

highwayman said:
I fixed it for you. St. Thomas will go when they feel like it.

This whole thing was instigated by 2-3 schools. Jealous, petty, "religious" schools. You can figure out pretty quickly who they are.

The rank and file schools don't care.
Click to expand...

The only schools in the MIAC these days with a clear student body focus on religion are Bethel and St. Johns, and they both want ST to stay in the conference.
 

per Shooter:

There was buzz last week that the University of St. Thomas might not contest the Division III Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s attempt by some members to expel it, and instead in two years join the Division II Northern Sun conference. There also was talk of the Tommies considering a move to Division I.

https://www.twincities.com/2019/05/...cruz-says-twins-remind-him-of-2010-al-champs/

Go Gophers!!
 

Chip: MIAC's mysterious push to oust St. Thomas baffling, high-handed

Something seems totally unfair within the MIAC, an inequity that demands drastic measures, perhaps expulsion of one institution.

St. Olaf College is just too dang good at choir.

Just ask them.

“St. Olaf College is recognized worldwide for the exceptional breadth and depth of its music program,” the school’s website boasts.

Why, if the MIAC held a singing competition — their version of “American Idol” — St. Olaf would embarrass some rivals so badly that, if they kept score, the outcome would be something like 97-0.

“The St. Olaf Choir continues to attract capacity audiences at top venues around the country including Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall, the Kennedy Center, Cleveland’s Severance Hall and the Orchestra Halls of both Chicago and Minneapolis,” the school notes.

This is outrageous! Who can compete with that kind of talent? The other MIAC schools should band together and boot those baritone bullies right out of the conference.

How dare St. Olaf make a sizable investment in something that enhances the school’s overall image and pursuit of excellence.

Sound silly? Of course it does.

http://www.startribune.com/miac-s-mysterious-push-to-oust-st-thomas-baffling-high-handed/509486642/

Go Gophers!!
 

Chip Scoggins faux outrage to rile people up in order to call attention to himself and his column?? Scandalous!
 

I generally like Scoggins and his work, but the choir/football comparison really doesn't make a lot of sense, unless they keep score at head-to-head choir concerts in a way with which I'm not familiar.

I happen to think that there really is a debate that needs to be had here about the emphasis put on athletics by the various schools in that conference, and whether things are working right now, and that there isn't really a cartoon villain here. St. Thomas may have been in the same conference with all these schools for decades, but places like Augsburg, Hamline, and St. Olaf are simply different in terms of how much emphasis/money they put into sports, and it's a good question whether it fits in to their larger mission to increase that emphasis, so the fit doesn't seem great. I don't know that it's worth blowing up the conference - you'd think there would be some solution short of that, and that talks are going on behind the scenes to reach it.

But the MIAC dissident schools are doing such a horrible job making their case that I wonder if Mark Coyle, who has never found a public forum he couldn't avoid, is somehow directing their ham-fisted public relations strategy. With the gag order they issued, there is no one making any of the defensible arguments that are out there, and the coverage and public debate is largely being driven by Reusse - essentially, the only reporting being done on this is what he puts out, and it's pretty obvious where his sympathies lie.
 

xyz1 said:
I generally like Scoggins and his work, but the choir/football comparison really doesn't make a lot of sense, unless they keep score at head-to-head choir concerts in a way with which I'm not familiar.
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Right on. St. Olaf offers degrees in music. St. Thomas isn't offering degrees in football or basketball that I am aware of. If St. Thomas put a huge amount of funding into an academic degree program no MIAC school would care. Chip's whole premise is flawed.
 
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xyz1 said:
and that talks are going on behind the scenes to reach it.
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I’m sure they are. St Thomas isn’t any different from any other human organization, in that way: defeating the status quo, regardless how much potential lies in the alternative, is always a difficult proposition.
 

This whole thing just proves that a lot of the MIAC is soft. You don’t want to lose? Get better or join the UMAC. I personally think UST shouldn’t be d3 but it’s honestly such a weak move by many MIAC schools minus a couple. This honestly isn’t anything to do with enrollment either it’s just that UST is good at almost every sport and enrollment is the excuse.
 
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Goph33 said:
This whole thing just proves that a lot of the MIAC is soft. You don’t want to lose? Get better or join the UMAC. I personally think UST shouldn’t be d3 but it’s honestly such a weak move by many MIAC schools minus a couple. This honestly isn’t anything to do with enrollment either it’s just that UST is good at almost every sport and enrollment is the excuse.
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Enrollment is just another symptom of the “disease”: ST desires to be more, and largely has already been walking down that path, than a small liberal arts college.

It’s the only university in the metro area other than the U where you can get an engineering degree.

It’s not a MIAC school, anymore. It’s just not. It belongs in the NSun with St Cloud, Mankato, and Duluth.
 

Goph33 said:
This whole thing just proves that a lot of the MIAC is soft. You don’t want to lose? Get better or join the UMAC. I personally think UST shouldn’t be d3 but it’s honestly such a weak move by many MIAC schools minus a couple. This honestly isn’t anything to do with enrollment either it’s just that UST is good at almost every sport and enrollment is the excuse.
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The MIAC is considered one of the top D3 conferences in the country. In terms of sports prestige, it will be lessened a bit if/when St. Thomas departs but in general the MIAC reputation will remain nearly the same. D3 is D3 for a reason. Academics come first. Football players regularly miss practice for exams or science labs. UMD eventually "fit" better elsewhere and they moved from the MIAC on their own. It can easily be argued St. Thomas is a worse fit for the conference today than UMD was when it left. It just needed an extra push. I have seen a lot of D1 viewpoints shoehorned into this D3 discussion. In your same post you accuse the MIAC as being "soft" swashbuckingly challenge it to "get better" but also admit "UST shouldn't be d3."
 

Looks like there's some buzz that St. Thomas may be getting close to acknowledging the inevitable and jumping before they're pushed. I've seen Shooter and Reusse both say something to the effect that St. Thomas may work out a deal with the other MIAC schools where they will not vote to boot St. Thomas, but St. Thomas will voluntarily agree to leave the conference in 2 years and move up to D2.

In his last podcast, Reusse said it's a done deal - that the school presidents have the votes they need to expel St. Thomas. Apparently the word is spreading that 2020 could be the last St. Thomas-St. John's game. Apparently someone inside the conference leaked some internal memos to Reusse.
 



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