The University of St. Thomas has been anxiously awaiting an answer from the NCAA, for their request to jump from Division III athletics to Division I. After more than a year of waiting, a decision is finally coming this week.

The Tommie’s current conference, the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), voted almost unanimously to remove St. Thomas from all athletic competitions. The MIAC cited the university’s “competitive” advantages as the reason. I’m citing, bullshit.

Sources on the boards of MIAC member schools Gustavus and St. Olaf mentioned the move was a strong-arming, from college presidents, over unsubstantiated fears that they couldn’t compete. The presidents didn’t even gather input from their stakeholders.

Yet St. Thomas has taken it in stride.

The @MIACathletics has released a statement that we will be involuntarily removed from the league. Grateful for our proud past, excited for a bright future #RollToms #ProudPast #BrightFuture

MIAC Statement: https://t.co/AhW1tRi4iS
More Information: https://t.co/hJv4Dv6nUZ pic.twitter.com/vfyy4DMZwX

— St. Thomas Athletics (@TommieAthletics) May 22, 2019

The NCAA planned to discuss St. Thomas’ reclassification back in April. But ever since COVID-19 paused nearly all NCAA operations, St. Thomas has been in limbo.

The NCAA’s Division I council, made up of 40 representatives from Division I schools, will vote on whether Division III schools can immediately reclassify to Division I. The traditional route involves jumping to Division II before Division I.

“There’s not an hour that’s gone by that this hasn’t been on my mind at some point. We’ve spent an incredible amount of time assessing the options available to us. It ultimately came down to membership in the Summit League, which gives us a great chance to accomplish things we’d like to pursue as a university.”

Phil Esten, St. Thomas Athletic Director

HISTORY LEFT BEHIND

St. Thomas has been dominant in the MIAC and willing to spend unlike other DIII schools ($1.1 million on football alone). They’ve also won hundreds of titles. The history they leave behind will be the worst part.

This includes their storied rivalry with historic rival, St. John’s University. The annual Tommie-Johnnie game, as its known, has become one of the most attended events in Division III athletics. It is so popular that the schools moved the game to Target Field and Allianz Field in 2017 and 2019. In 2020, the game is scheduled to be played at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Losing out on 500 MIAC championships and 16 national championships across all sports is a shame, as is losing storied rivalries. It’s the right move for both sides, though.

via GIPHY

WHAT’S NEXT?

St. Thomas should know more about their future this week with the council meeting Tuesday and Wednesday. If approved, St. Thomas is poised to join the Summit League in most sports, excluding football. That league includes the likes of both NDSU and SDSU.

For football, St. Thomas’ most dominant sport, they appear to be looking at the Missouri Valley Conference or the Pioneer League. If they join the former, you know our staff here at Minnesota Sports Fan can’t wait to see sad NDSU fans flood our mentions in the coming years.

via GIPHY

Jack Kewitsch | Minnesota Sports Fan

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EPISODE 53 SUMMARY

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Episode 53 is full because the Minnesota Sports Abyss is non-existent in 2019. The Twins continue to dominate everyone, winning 6 of 7 in their last two series and pulling a ridiculous record of 33-16 to start the season… wtf is happening?

Ryan Saunders won a contest for the Minnesota Timberwolves head coach that didn’t have any other contestants…

The MIAC kicked St. Thomas out of their conference because they win too much and we can’t help but try to save society, when discussing.

The Gopher football team has had some interesting news flow through the last couple of days and we are defending PJ Fleck’s honor again.

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Episode Chapters

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The @MIACathletics has released a statement that we will be involuntarily removed from the league. Grateful for our proud past, excited for a bright future #RollToms #ProudPast #BrightFuture

MIAC Statement: https://t.co/AhW1tRi4iS
More Information: https://t.co/hJv4Dv6nUZ pic.twitter.com/vfyy4DMZwX

— St. Thomas Athletics (@TommieAthletics) May 22, 2019

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Wow… when I heard about the MIAC unrest awhile back, I thought it was something that would end up blowing over. I mean.. it’s not that surprising in today’s landscape, with colleges and highschools swapping conferences on the regular, so maybe I shouldn’t have been.. But the way this “realignment” took place, every party involved should be embarrased.

There are all sorts of details I’m missing and you can read those somewhere else. I’m just a stupid kid who took 6 years to make it through an online (very much public) St. Cloud State University bachelor’s degree… I have just as much college debt as a private school kid, who had to pay his/her own way though… mine just didn’t all go toward tuition. (Spring Breaks and Good Times ’09 don’t pay for themselves)

But enough about my common upbringing. Let’s bash some rich people.

Here is why St. Thomas got kicked out of the MIAC:

This just screams about what’s wrong with the time we are currently living in. Don’t get me wrong, we already have insta-pots and self-driving cars, so a lot about the time we live in is fucking awesome… but this isn’t one of them.

St. Thomas has been *mostly dominating the MIAC for the last 20-ish years in the sports that matter. Sorry, men’s swimming or women’s soccer… nobody cares. When you look at football, the domination hasn’t even been that real… If I’m St. Johns, I’m worried my snowman friend, Olaf is coming for me next… The REAL domination has been in basketball. The women’s side has gone about the same way.

“Ohhhhhh, they’re too big we can’t hang with them…” STOP. Yes you can. You can see in the pictures above that St. Johns is doing just fine. If you have lesser teams at the bottom of the conference that want to drop down and play some shitty level of division III football then let them go and ruin their schools.

That’s their problem. Find schools who want to challenge you, not drag you down. You should always strive for excellence and St. Thomas has been the captain of the excellence plane for the last decade+. Now what? Who is going to push St. Johns now in football? Or the other schools in other sports? Nobody. But, that’s what the Snowmen want right?

I just have to laugh at this shit. St. Olaf the Snowman decided back in the 50’s or whatever, that they wanted to be into arts and singing and drama and shit that doesn’t make you money. That’s fine. Do what you want. But now, that’s a Tommy problem? But hey, I can’t wait to watch the Tommies vs the Snowmen this season…

I don’t think you could set a point spread big enough for the St. Thomas vs. St. Olaf football game this year.

— RandBall (@RandBall) May 22, 2019

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The grass isn’t always greener but it will be for St. Thomas. They don’t want anything to do with this limp joke of a conference. If I were St. Johns, I’d get out before they start dragging me down too. Lol… “you win too much”… hilarious.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan