D3 St. Thomas gets invite to Summit League

[laker]

I'm surprised that they want to go straight to D1 with athletics. That's quite a financial burden on a school, IIRC. However, what I don't like reading is that the MIAC booted them for being too successful. In an ESPN article, it was specifically mentioned that they won six MIAC football titles since 2010. Look at the runs that NWMSU, GVSU, Ferris, Pitt State, and others have had over time periods of that same length.

It is also the runs that they have had in both men's and women's sports. Last year they finished third in football and missed the playoffs.

[laker]

Oddly enough, St Thomas is located on Summit Avenue already.

University of St. Thomas, Minnesota
2115 Summit Avenue
St. Paul, Minnesota 55105 USA
651-962-5000

[DapperDan]

A few thoughts/opinions/predictions on this matter:

1. The waiver will be a slam dunk. St. Thomas is an extremely well healed private school with a wealthy and enthusiastic alumni deeply entrenched in the Twin Cities. Many St. Thomas grads are owners of large business in the area and have a lot of money to give. They will have no problem raising whatever is necessary to make the leap. Furthermore, they have an array of public facilities for which they can probably make use of as secondary tenants to the primary professional sports franchises; namely Xcel Energy Center for basketball and perhaps hockey, CHS Field for baseball and Allianz Field for football (although admittedly football and soccer aren't terribly compatible in terms of turf maintenance).

2. Despite the good face, this is devastating news for Augustana. It is telling how the league jumped on the St. Thomas opportunity while Augie blows in the wind. While Sioux Falls may seem like kind of a media and population attraction for the Summit as it is now configured, the Twin Cities is the Crown Jewell. It takes a lot of the shine off of moving into Sioux Falls, particularly considering two other very close by schools already get the lions share of media coverage in Sioux Falls as it is and I imagine many of the alumni from these schools are already in the community and probably could give two hoots about having Augie in the fold. On top of that St. Thomas is much more financially solid and, as I understand it, this puts the league at a nice round 10 members and now will have enough baseball teams to get the auto berth. Why would you want to immediately go back to a clumsy number?

3. The Summit will be a stepping stone for St. Thomas to bigger and better things. They will come to dominate the Summit, albeit to a lesser degree, that they now dominate the MIAC. After becoming established I would not be at all surprised to see them attempt to move up to a more major conference that features big time basketball like the Big East.

4. Having a second DI school in town is going to be a major thorn in the side of the U of M should ST leave the Low D1 league dungeon (even at Low D1 they will be a minor thorn). The U now gets all the meaningful local media coverage and still loses many of the best in state basketball recruits to the likes of Wisconsin and Iowa (not to mention Duke but that, of course, is another story). They will eventually have St. Thomas to contend with both in terms of media exposure and recruiting competition.

5. I am not a big fan with the sport and, by that, my opinion is worth what it costs but I don't see the state needing another D1 hockey team. There are too many already. There is only so much worthy talent to go around and it gets spread pretty thin what with the Gophers, Mankato, St. Cloud and Bemidji already competing for it.

[crixus]

The MIAC is a punk conference. Good move by St. Thomas and the Summit League.

[Supercal95]

There is no such thing as too much hockey. Michigan has 7 teams. Heck, many states have 5 or more D1 football teams.

[Wildcat Khan]

There is no such thing as too much hockey. Michigan has 7 teams. Heck, many states have 5 or more D1 football teams.

Except in GNAC territory, although this does also sound a lot like why WOU, WWU, and CWU left NAIA for D2 when the private schools stopped wanting to compete with the public schools as WWU and CWU were both getting to the national title game in football, something that had been PLU's to do before for the conference.

I agree, no such thing as too much hockey!

[laker]

Star Tribune's Pat Reusse writes about UST.

http://www.startribune.com/move-to-d...ity/562294522/