FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[stanbob]

been quiet on this since the onset.  ust has been expanding both academically and athletically for the past several years and speculation has to their ambitions has been on this board for the vast majority of that time, what they received by being forced out of the miac is a publicity coup that I don't think they even imagined possible.  Good luck to the rest of the miac on their take no prisoners farewell tours f the miac...

[DuffMan]

BDB, the Duff VIP crew may take you up on your offer.  Kinda far out to plan now, though.

Will there be updated B&S's mug giveaways? 

[BDB]

BDB, the Duff crew may take you up.  Kinda far out to plan now, though.

Now things are taking shape!

[BDB]

We should have Jackson Erdmann in the house. That's worth the travel right there.

[carletonknights]

I'm not trying to be an ass here, but $600M is still far away from $1B for a school the size of St. Thomas.  Also, can you send me a link to that?  I don't really follow St. Thomas events, but when I tried to Google it, the only thing that came up was a StarTrib article from 2017 that St. Thomas had met its endowment fundraising goal of $200M.  I just find it a bit surprising that they would go from a $200M goal in 2017 to a $1B goal two years later.  While I'm sure many alumni are upset about recent events, I think we on this board might be overestimating the extent to which these events will galvanize the St. Thomas donor base. 

Listen, I hope they achieve their goal (that would really be quite something - possibly an unprecedented rise - and the school would undoubtedly have to fight off many others trying to poach their fundraising team) I just think that whoever told you they were setting a $1B was exaggerating.

Here's the old webpage from the last "Opening Doors" fundraising campaign, which generated $515M by the end date plus an additional $60M over the following year. The 2017 endowment fundraising goal of $200M was a separate fundraiser dedicated to endowing specific scholarship programs. The upcoming campaign will be much larger as UST is seeking national prominence.

Link: https://www.stthomas.edu/openingdoors/

Thank you for the link, I'll check it out

[The Mole]

NAIA has 10 different conferences (and 3 Independent teams) with 4 conferences within some geographical proximity of St. Paul. I am neither recommending nor condoning a move to the NAIA, but how realistic is that possibility?

Those 4 conferences: Mid States MidEast, Mid States Midwest, North Star Athletic & Great Plains Athletic have 28 total teams with the following respective # of squads: 7, 6, 6 and 9. The states of those 28 teams breaks down as follows: 6 teams are in Illinois (UST beat one of them Trinity International IL 76-7 last year), 6 are in Iowa, 4 in North Dakota, 3 each in Indiana, South Dakota & Nebraska, 2 are in Michigan and 1 in Missouri.

In the other 6 conferences and independents, there are additional teams in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arizona, Arkansas, South Carolina and Indiana. I may be missing a few others, but you get the point.

Depending on the "brand" and "academic and athletic profile" that UST wants to promote and message, NAIA may or may not be an option, just sayin...

[Gregory Sager]

Some of those NAIA conferences are football-only conferences.

[jamtod]

NAIA has 10 different conferences (and 3 Independent teams) with 4 conferences within some geographical proximity of St. Paul. I am neither recommending nor condoning a move to the NAIA, but how realistic is that possibility?

Those 4 conferences: Mid States MidEast, Mid States Midwest, North Star Athletic & Great Plains Athletic have 28 total teams with the following respective # of squads: 7, 6, 6 and 9. The states of those 28 teams breaks down as follows: 6 teams are in Illinois (UST beat one of them Trinity International IL 76-7 last year), 6 are in Iowa, 4 in North Dakota, 3 each in Indiana, South Dakota & Nebraska, 2 are in Michigan and 1 in Missouri.

In the other 6 conferences and independents, there are additional teams in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arizona, Arkansas, South Carolina and Indiana. I may be missing a few others, but you get the point.

Depending on the "brand" and "academic and athletic profile" that UST wants to promote and message, NAIA may or may not be an option, just sayin...

How realistic? About as realistic (probably less so) than the MIAC reversing course and letting UST stay indefinitely.

Geographically, athletically, academically, etc, the NAIA options are worse than potential D3 options or a move to D2/D1. There is no significant benefit or reason for UST to seriously consider NAIA unless things got really really desperate.

[formerd3db]

The Mole:
Just a few comments...
1) GS is right regarding some of those conferences being football only,
2) I believe there are now actually three NAIA schools in Michigan sponsoring football, all 3 in the Mid States Football conference, Siena Heights, Concordia-Ann Arbor and Lawrence Tech joins this year
and...
3) If UST were to join any NAIA conference, would we not see them again being subjected to the TommyToss as they would be too competitive for the NAIA schools, especially in football? (just kidding-but not really in view of what has transpired☺)

Edited to correct spelling/auto correct errors.

[stanbob]

NAIA has 10 different conferences (and 3 Independent teams) with 4 conferences within some geographical proximity of St. Paul. I am neither recommending nor condoning a move to the NAIA, but how realistic is that possibility?

Those 4 conferences: Mid States MidEast, Mid States Midwest, North Star Athletic & Great Plains Athletic have 28 total teams with the following respective # of squads: 7, 6, 6 and 9. The states of those 28 teams breaks down as follows: 6 teams are in Illinois (UST beat one of them Trinity International IL 76-7 last year), 6 are in Iowa, 4 in North Dakota, 3 each in Indiana, South Dakota & Nebraska, 2 are in Michigan and 1 in Missouri.

In the other 6 conferences and independents, there are additional teams in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arizona, Arkansas, South Carolina and Indiana. I may be missing a few others, but you get the point.

Depending on the "brand" and "academic and athletic profile" that UST wants to promote and message, NAIA may or may not be an option, just sayin...

How realistic? About as realistic (probably less so) than the MIAC reversing course and letting UST stay indefinitely.

Geographically, athletically, academically, etc, the NAIA options are worse than potential D3 options or a move to D2/D1. There is no significant benefit or reason for UST to seriously consider NAIA unless things got really really desperate.

Let ust stay indefinitely in the miac until they are more ready to step up?  are you serious?

[jamtod]

NAIA has 10 different conferences (and 3 Independent teams) with 4 conferences within some geographical proximity of St. Paul. I am neither recommending nor condoning a move to the NAIA, but how realistic is that possibility?

Those 4 conferences: Mid States MidEast, Mid States Midwest, North Star Athletic & Great Plains Athletic have 28 total teams with the following respective # of squads: 7, 6, 6 and 9. The states of those 28 teams breaks down as follows: 6 teams are in Illinois (UST beat one of them Trinity International IL 76-7 last year), 6 are in Iowa, 4 in North Dakota, 3 each in Indiana, South Dakota & Nebraska, 2 are in Michigan and 1 in Missouri.

In the other 6 conferences and independents, there are additional teams in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arizona, Arkansas, South Carolina and Indiana. I may be missing a few others, but you get the point.

Depending on the "brand" and "academic and athletic profile" that UST wants to promote and message, NAIA may or may not be an option, just sayin...

How realistic? About as realistic (probably less so) than the MIAC reversing course and letting UST stay indefinitely.

Geographically, athletically, academically, etc, the NAIA options are worse than potential D3 options or a move to D2/D1. There is no significant benefit or reason for UST to seriously consider NAIA unless things got really really desperate.

Let ust stay indefinitely in the miac until they are more ready to step up?  are you serious?

As serious as the consideration of UST going to the NAIA if you catch my drift here.

[hazzben]

The Mole:
Just a few comments...
1) GS is right regarding some of those conferences being football only,
2) I believe there are now actually three NAIA schools in Michigan sponsoring football, all 3 in the Mid States Football conference, Siena Heights, Concordia-Ann Arbor and Lawrence Tech joins this year
and...
3) If UST were to join any NAIA conference, would we not see them again being subjected to the TommyToss as they would be too competitive for the NAIA schools, especially in football? (just kidding-but not really in view of what has transpired☺)

Edited to correct spelling/auto correct errors.

UST would be a much better fit in the ARC than going NAIA. The most realistic option would be the GPAC. Really brutal travel schedule, but they wouldn't be a shoe in to win that conference. Morningside might have a thing or two to say about it.

NAIA just doesn't work for UST on any level that I can see. They'd honestly be better off going independent in D3 if all other D3 and D2/D1 options failed them.

[miac952]

I don't know much, but I know with some certainty that NAIA is not even a consideration for UST. It's on UST's list right next to joining the state high school league and begging the snake in Northfield to have them back.

[Gregory Sager]

The Mole:
Just a few comments...
1) GS is right regarding some of those conferences being football only,
2) I believe there are now actually three NAIA schools in Michigan sponsoring football, all 3 in the Mid States Football conference, Siena Heights, Concordia-Ann Arbor and Lawrence Tech joins this year
and...
3) If UST were to join any NAIA conference, would we not see them again being subjected to the TommyToss as they would be too competitive for the NAIA schools, especially in football? (just kidding-but not really in view of what has transpired☺)

Edited to correct spelling/auto correct errors.

UST would be a much better fit in the ARC than going NAIA. The most realistic option would be the GPAC. Really brutal travel schedule, but they wouldn't be a shoe in to win that conference. Morningside might have a thing or two to say about it.

More importantly, it's an all-sports conference. Eighteen of UST's sports would be covered by joining the GPAC (although I agree that it's extremely doubtful that it will ever come to that). Only men's and women's hockey and men's and women's swimming would be left to find alternate conference homes.

For the record, the only two sports in which the ARC can't provide a home for the Tommies are men's and women's hockey.

[Bartman]

Just catching up to this St. Thomas ousting from the MIAC due to "athletic competive parity" reasons. . As an east coaster having visited St. Thomas when Hobart got clobbered in the Football playoffs, I was impressed with the campus and the student body. While St. Thomas may be larger and on the Endowment upswing, not sure why this deserves an ouster, but then I am ignorant if there are other reasons for this. In the Liberty League we have disparity in both enrollment( 1500 to 6000 +) and endowment ( 100MM to over 1Billion) , but it seems to work with colleges having strengths and weaknesses by sport with a few schools opting out for D1 in Hockey and Lacrosse.  If St. Thomas was in the NESCAC  they would be only the fifth best sports program in the conference based on IMG Directors Cup D3 points for 2018-2019. Just curious if there were other unmentioned reasons for the ouster.