JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
NCAA Division I Council approves elevation of 22 sports programs, including men's & women's hockey, at the private university in St. Paul, MN.
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Dear St. Thomas community
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.
With this news, we enthusiastically accept invitations to join the Summit League for 19 of our 22 sports, as well as the Pioneer Football League and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) women’s league. We also are excited about conference options for our men’s hockey program. ...
Read more at: https://www.stthomas.edu/athletics-future/
And not the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX.Not to be confused with St.Thomas University, in case anyone did.
As indicated in my OP, the existing women's & men's DIII hockey programs will each be elevated. No mention of adding a women's sports program or any other Athletics structure adjustments in this cautionary Star Tribune article from Jan 2020.... I actually have a curious question, considering they were already in DIII and simply jumping to DI, do St. Thomas have to create a women's sport for Title XI?
I reckon UST Athletics are playing it patiently re. a decision on the men's hockey team conference. Besides the uncertainties with the pandemic, the way I read the University release & related media stories is that the teams won't be jumping into DI competition in the coming season. There's work to be done, including establishing whatever changes that may be required to comply with Title IX.
This could have a ripple effect on D-III athletics in general.
Knowing that St. Thomas was successfully able to transfer to D-I, other successful D-III schools could soon question their commitment to the D-III philosophy, and seek membership in D-II (as the Tommies were only approved for D-I due to extenuating circumstances).
Mount Union (in Alliance, OH, near where I live) and Wisconsin-Whitewater moving to D-II would be especially devastating for the conferences they'd leave behind. There are a number of D-II football schools in Ohio, all of which (except Central State) will be in the G-MAC as of 2021. Those schools could form a new conference around Mount Union.
Wisconsin-Whitewater would have a home if the Northern Sun Conference splits along state lines. The non-Minnesota schools in the conference (barring any that decide to move up to D1) could form the core for a new conference, and UWW would be a good fit for it. The WIAC would likely have to invite its first full-time private member to replace them, with St. Norbert being my top candidate.
The NSIC could potentially poach some of the remaining schools of the MIAC, with Concordia-Moorhead, Gustavus Adolphus, and St. John's/St. Benedict being the most attractive candidates to join a reorganized NSIC based exclusively in Minnesota.
Where've you been, @Barclay Donaldson? I'm dyin' in this thread.
The MIAC was really a perfect storm of factors for St. Thomas. You have a very central, quality university with a strong emphasis on athletics (not necessarily true of the rest of the conference) as you noted and they are at least double the enrollment of everyone else. They were the 'big bad' when I went to a MIAC school, you always wanted to beat them. St John's were pretty good too if I recall correctly and they played at St. Cloud State.I was busy doing foreigner tasks. Undermining American culture, watching soccer, eating healthy.
I never played against them in college, but we did play in the same showcase tournament as them so I do not know much about them outside of their famous ejection from MIAC. This article brings up several excellent points we should be touching on instead of other schools that will never go NCAA D1 *cough cough*. Tommies men face conference, arena questions as move to Division I begins | Grand Forks Herald. They play 15 minutes off-campus at a school-owned facility that will certainly need to be replaced in the medium- to long-term to accommodate a sustainable men's hockey program.
St. Thomas may do alright in ice hockey.
Every other sport, however? Oof.
Division 1 is way different than D-III. Hell, there's plenty of schools (looking at Chicago State especially) that should go down due to not having any practical means of not making asses of themselves in any sport and the smaller budgets may be better. They'd lose out on those paydays where they go to a large school and get humiliated, but if you're a student athlete at these places, do you really need to feel like you're a lamb out to slaughter?
You're dreaming about unrealistic stuff, we keep it realistic and logical here.
Mount Union (in Alliance, OH, near where I live) and Wisconsin-Whitewater
REPORTED ... on all three counts.I was busy doing foreigner tasks. Undermining American culture, watching soccer, eating healthy. ...
You're surprised by this? Clearly this is the first post by him that you've ever read...on second thought, you're lucky.
Good luck to them, but I do not envy the situation they're entering. Barring another split in WCHA ranks, they're going to be joining a very far flung conference in all likelihood.
Probably just working out the final value & schedule of the "tribute payments" that St. Thomas will owe the other 7 teams.The reformed CCHA starts the same time St. Thomas goes D1. They have two Minnesota schools in Bemidji State and Minnesota State-Mankato. Only seven members total. More than reasonable travel since UAF, UAA, and UAH will be discourse. The conference have been actively looking for an 8th member. I’m surprised they haven’t joined yet.
Probably just working out the final value & schedule of the "tribute payments" that St. Thomas will owe the other 7 teams.
ETA: And what the heck does "UAF, UAA, and UAH will be discourse" mean?
Of course, you mean: "English is totally HAH-rrrrrd."I think I mean to say <<discluded>> and it auto corrected to <<discourse>> because <<discluded>> isn't a word LOL. English is difficult.