In a historic move, the University of St. Thomas has been granted a waiver, allowing them to jump straight from Division III to Division I, for their athletics programs. The NCAA approved the motion, today, granting St. Thomas the ability to make such a jump.

“Today, we received long-awaited news from the @NCAA that St. Thomas has been approved to begin reclassification to Division I athletics.” –President Julie Sullivan https://t.co/OIrvT0mtAs

— University of St. Thomas (@UofStThomasMN) July 15, 2020

Today, we received long-awaited news from the NCAA that St. Thomas has been approved to begin reclassification to Division I athletics. This announcement paves the way for our St. Thomas student-athletes, coaches, fans and community to build Minnesota’s first private D-I collegiate athletics program and just the second D-I program in the state.

St. Thomas is the first university that has been approved to transition directly to D-I from D-III in the modern history of the NCAA. This approval recognizes St. Thomas’ growing reputation and academic and athletic success and will help us expand our mission and impact beyond Minnesota.

St Thomas President – Julie H. Sullivan

Unprecedented Jump

Prior to this unprecedented jump by St. Thomas, schools had to go through a years-long process to just go up one division. St. Thomas was struck by extenuating circumstances, however.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that St. Thomas was near unanimously kicked from their current conference back in 2019 because other member schools of the MIAC didn’t like how often they were winning. They cited a competitive imbalance, stating that St. Thomas’ 10,000+ students wasn’t comparable to fractions of that at other schools in the league.

With the MIAC forcing them to leave the conference by the 2021-22 school year. Leaving little time for one of Minnesota’s premier athletic programs to find a new home.

Thankfully, the NCAA recognized the tricky situation St. Thomas was in and granted them the waiver to jump up. That’s after the vote was delayed for months, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

NEW LEAGUES FOR THE TOMMIES

As for what is next, St. Thomas had a few options regarding their conference landing sports. It’s a very tricky situation for everyone involved and some sports are yet to be announced, including men’s hockey.

Outside of football and women’s hockey, the Tommies have accepted an invitation to join the Summit League. This is a smart move, for their first steps into a more competitive atmosphere.

St. Thomas will join the Pioneer League for football (their most dominant sport) and the WCHA for women’s hockey.

? St. Thomas receives @NCAA waiver to join The Summit League in 2021-22 ?

The Tommies will be the league’s 10th member#ReachTheSummit | #RollToms

?️: https://t.co/wPICO7ctWz pic.twitter.com/2Y1iLFjjRT

— The Summit League (@thesummitleague) July 15, 2020

The PFL welcomes @TommieAthletics to the league in 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣1️⃣.#FCS https://t.co/3Kj3blYzCh

— Pioneer Football (@PFLNews) July 15, 2020

“St. Thomas brings the full package – an excellent academic reputation, experienced leadership, a massive alumni network and a winning culture. With their values-based mission and status as Minnesota’s largest private university, we know the Tommies will represent the Summit League well and we’re proud to welcome them.”

Tom Douple, Summit League Commissioner

“The Tommies were one of the NCAA’s most successful football programs at any level over the past decade and they live their university mission off the field, which makes them an outstanding institutional fit for us. We are thrilled to expand to the Twin Cities, and proud to welcome a program with a track record for graduating players, winning conference titles and playoff games, and serving its community.”

Patty Viverito, Pioneer Football League Commissioner

SO LONG TYRANNY

While it is awful St. Thomas is losing storied histories and rivalries, their dominance was never in question.

According to their press release, they have

• 15 NCAA team championships since 1982.
• 21 different sports with top-five national team finishes
• The only NCAA school to have at least one team championship in baseball, softball, volleyball, men’s basketball and women’s basketball.

In football alone, the Tommies have gone 108-16 since 2010, including six years of undefeated conference play. Some of the scores during those seasons could be seen as “wallopings”: 76-7, 62-0, and 73-14… just to list a few.

It will be interesting to follow how St. Thomas performs in their new leagues, starting in 2021-22. Whatever happens, I am sure they are glad to be out of the grips of the tyrannical MIAC clutches and they should be proud of such a historic jump.

Jack Kewitsch | Minnesota Sports Fan

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

• Denver
• North Dakota
• North Dakota State
• Omaha
• Oral Roberts
• Purdue Fort Wayne
• South Dakota
• South Dakota State
• Western Illinois

According to this email that I got my hands on, which was sent out to their alumni today; the only thing St. Thomas is waiting for, is a waiver that will allow them to jump from D-III to D-I, without first spending time in D-II. That’s the common rule for NCAA advancement. I’d be surprised if this doesn’t get accepted and approved, giving the now public status of their application.

This new development is awesome and Minnesota getting another D-I school is long overdue! I’m also happy to see St. Thomas end up on the best end of this bullshit situation. “Fine, you don’t want us in D-III? Well, we’ll just go get rich over in D-I.” It’s the ultimate middle-finger move to a conference that’s still shitting its pants, while they dream of 2021 when they don’t have to compete against the “almighty St. Thomas” anymore.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

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