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D3 athletic conference kicks school out for being too good

Beau Vine

By Beau Vine
in Daily Texan

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Beau Vine

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SAINT PAUL, MN — In a drastic move, the University of St. Thomas will be forced to leave the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. St. Thomas was a founding member of the MIAC, which began in 1920.

The university will be removed at the end of spring 2021. The conference Wednesday cited St. Thomas' dominance in sports as a reason for the move.

"After extensive membership discussions, the University of St. Thomas will be involuntarily removed from membership in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference," the MIAC said in a statement.

 
 
 

"The MIAC Presidents' Council cites athletic competitive parity in the conference as a primary concern. St. Thomas will begin a multi-year transition immediately and meanwhile is eligible to compete as a full member of the MIAC through the end of spring 2021. St. Thomas is one of seven founding members of the MIAC and will leave the conference in good standing with a long and appreciated history of academic and athletic success."

 

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://bit.ly/2JzYILA 
More Information: https://bit.ly/2Wejvdt 

 
 
 
 

"Today is a difficult day for our community," St. Thomas President Julie Sullivan said in a statement reacting to the news.

"St. Thomas expended tremendous effort to remain in the MIAC and stabilize the conference. However, the presidents came to a consensus that the conference itself would cease to exist in its current form if St. Thomas remained."

Sullivan added that while "this decision is extremely disappointing, we will continue to prioritize the welfare and overall experience of our student-athletes. They embrace and represent both academic and athletic excellence and are important contributors to our university's culture. Additionally, our coaches share the values of advancing comprehensive excellence and are among the best in the country."

The future of St. Thomas Athletics

Following the decision Wednesday, St. Thomas said it will "immediately begin a deliberative process to explore other conferences."

The university added that the "strength of our athletic programs, our institutional commitment to excellence and our location in the metro area will make us an attractive candidate to other conferences. While our athletic conference will change, one thing will not: our commitment to both academic and athletic excellence."

 

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Flg8rfan

Flg8rfan 201

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Had something similar happen with rec volleyball. Girls went to a camp in Jacksonville and the program needed coaches to help out so their rec coach went. Long story short, he was invited to bring a team to some of their rec tournaments.

Figured it would be a good experience for the girls who wanted to do it. Paid the fees, ordered jerseys, etc. it was going to be four one day tournaments. Went to the first one (one other rec team from Orlando was also invited, in a separate bracket). We were playing 17u, oldest girl on our squad was 15, youngest was 13 (they had been playing up a level for a year or two).

Needless to say, both of the out of town teams destroyed every local team (one of my kids matches was 25-3, 25-5, 15-2)

A month goes by, coach reached out Wednesday prior to the next tournament to see if he can get the schedule. Turns out the other coaches said if the two out of town teams were coming, they wouldn’t show so we were ‘disinvited’ and a check was in the mail for the remaining fees.

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Steel Shank

Steel Shank 9426

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11 hours ago, Flg8rfan said:

Had something similar happen with rec volleyball. Girls went to a camp in Jacksonville and the program needed coaches to help out so their rec coach went. Long story short, he was invited to bring a team to some of their rec tournaments.

Figured it would be a good experience for the girls who wanted to do it. Paid the fees, ordered jerseys, etc. it was going to be four one day tournaments. Went to the first one (one other rec team from Orlando was also invited, in a separate bracket). We were playing 17u, oldest girl on our squad was 15, youngest was 13 (they had been playing up a level for a year or two).

Needless to say, both of the out of town teams destroyed every local team (one of my kids matches was 25-3, 25-5, 15-2)

A month goes by, coach reached out Wednesday prior to the next tournament to see if he can get the schedule. Turns out the other coaches said if the two out of town teams were coming, they wouldn’t show so we were ‘disinvited’ and a check was in the mail for the remaining fees.

Ice cold.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54238

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The MIAC is made up of small, private Minnesota schools, and Division III doesn’t have athletic scholarships. The Tommies won the league’s men’s and women’s all-sports titles in each of the past 12 seasons and won 11 of 22 regular-season titles this academic year. Recent football dominance has further illustrated the gap.

Nine of the league’s 13 teams would have needed to vote to remove St. Thomas. A person close to the conference with direct knowledge of the situation told The Athletic that no actual vote took place, but everyone understood what was happening and an agreement was worked out. The person was granted anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the situation. St. Thomas will have two more years in the MIAC through spring 2021 as it searches for a new home.

“I’m sad about it,” Esten said. “It’s certainly disappointing. We worked really hard and made it clear our priority was to maintain membership in the conference. This is a conversation that had been going on for a while, so I wouldn’t say we were surprised. But we made it clear we wanted to stay in the MIAC. We were a founding member. We have proud and rich history with this conference. But it was inevitable. The outcome was brought upon us, and now we look forward.”

A large part of the decision came down to the lack of athletic parity. The St. Thomas football team has won six conference championships since head coach Glenn Caruso took over in 2008. The Tommies are 30-2 in league play since 2015 and reached the Division III national championship game in 2012 and 2015. In the past two years, St. Thomas’ average margin of victory in MIAC wins was more than 40 points per game.

Questions about St. Thomas’ dominance have been around for years, but a 97-0 football win against St. Olaf in 2017, three weeks after an 84-0 win against Hamline, changed the conversation into something serious, the source close to the league said.

Esten, who was hired in November 2018 and took over this January, downplayed that notion.

“I think it’s the catalyst created by the media,” he said. “The conversations I’ve been in, this has not been about one sport. It’s not been about one contest or one team. It’s about comprehensive competitive parity. In the last five years, St. Thomas has won more than 50 percent of the conference championships in all sports. I do think it’s unfair to say it’s about one sport.”

But it’s not just St. Thomas’ winning — the Tommies finished only third in the football standings last year — it’s how and why it has happened.

St. Thomas’ undergraduate enrollment is more than 6,000 students, about double the next-highest MIAC school. It’s more than triple some schools. Its investment in athletics is higher than at the other schools. The difference became too much for its opponents.

“Members just felt they didn’t look like us anymore,” the person close to the league said. “Didn’t look like a small Division III institution, which is what our membership is made up of.”

The situation had become so untenable that several members of the conference threatened to leave if a change wasn’t made.

“The presidents came to a consensus that the conference itself would cease to exist in its current form if St. Thomas remained,” St. Thomas president Julie Sullivan said in a statement.

Not everyone in the MIAC is happy with the decision. Saint John’s, the biggest rival to St. Thomas, was against the move.

SJU has its own proud history. Former football coach John Gagliardi won 465 games in 59 years leading the program. The Johnnies won the MIAC this past season. The 2017 game between St. Thomas and Saint John’s drew a Division III-record 37,355 fans at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins.

“We’re disappointed the conference isn’t going to stay together,” Saint John’s athletic director and golf coach Bob Alpers said. “This conference always has been one of the finest D-III conferences in the country. The idea of it not staying together, it’s really disappointing to us. Our hope going forward is we continue the relationship and the rivalry with St. Thomas. We really want to do that.”

In 2017, Saint John’s beat St. Scholastica 98-0, but that was a nonconference game. Alpers didn’t want to speculate on the motives of other members to remove St. Thomas.

“People have been careful about comments they’ve made,” he said. “Nobody’s ever (mentioned football) directly.”

Several schools within the league did not respond to requests for comment. A statement from Concordia said that it “supports the announcement made by the MIAC (Wednesday). Any further questions should be directed to the MIAC office.”

Esten doesn’t know what the future holds. He wouldn’t list specific conferences, but the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, home of Division III-power Wisconsin-Whitewater, and the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference could be options. Asked whether St. Thomas will consider moving up to Division II, Esten said everything is on the table, noting that St. Thomas has to earn an invitation to a conference. It can’t necessarily choose where it wants to go.

St. Thomas says it tried to work out issues with the other schools individually, but it defends its growth and investment.

“We’ve done everything the conference asked us to do,” Esten said. “We’ve done everything the NCAA has asked us to do. We have prioritized our student-athlete experience. We’ve invested in creating conditions for success, and we’ve enjoyed some success. I can only speak to what’s important to us, and those are priorities for us. And those won’t change.”

This also puts teams in an awkward position for the next two years. Will the remaining MIAC schools negative recruit against St. Thomas? Could St. Thomas choose to run up football scores? The league hopes to keep everything respectful and in-house, but this is uncharted territory in which animosity behind the scenes will be hard to avoid.

Despite a theoretical even playing field without athletic scholarships, the divide within Division III has long been evident. It’s especially true in football. Since 2005, only Mount Union, Wisconsin-Whitewater and Mary Hardin-Baylor have won the Division III national championship. In that span, St. Thomas and Wisconsin-Oshkosh are the only other schools to even reach the Stagg Bowl title game.

St. Thomas’ success within that group could have been a point of pride within the MIAC. Instead, the goals and philosophies of the small Minnesota private colleges don’t sync anymore. Some within the conference think it’s a short-term response that will have long-term consequences. Time will tell.

The MIAC is coming up on the 100th anniversary of its founding. The decision to remove a founding member because it was winning too much certainly puts a cloud over that. The news release stated St. Thomas leaves “in good standing.”

Said Alpers on the loss of a longtime rival: “It’s not a great day.”

 

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Bobson Dugnutt

Bobson Dugnutt 0

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Although they won't admit it, a similar thing happened to Trinity University - San Antonio.  The rest of the conference formed their own conference and didn't invite Trinity.  One of the departing school presidents was quoted stating they didn't like having to travel to San Antonio and lose.  I guess they made up since they recently let Trinity back in the conference for football only.  Winning in non-scholly D3 is serious business..

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