Minnesota Still Has Two Schools in the Nat'l Football Championship Chase

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Did any of these schools win 9 games last year?


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Schnauzer said:
The MIAC has always had a comparative large amount of attention in this market. That was true long before St. Thomas became a football powerhouse.

It wasn't long ago (90's and 00's), Gustavus was regularly winning the all-sport MIAC award (where they assign points to each sport and used a multiple of where team's placed in the MIAC standings to rank each school overall). Now? In most sports it is St. Thomas in first place and the rest of the conference competing for second place. Men's and Women's. The enrollment at St. Thomas has made it into an easy target for a children's game of "which one doesn't belong." Despite all that, their student body interest in spectating all those championships is remarkably low. That has been true for decades.
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Well I know St Thomas students love to party and go to the St John's game, especially the away game. They rent whole party buses for the ride up and down. Maybe that's the only event of the year they largely care about?

They certainly were out in full force at Target Field for the game this year. Some of them noticeably in the tank, from I presume the night before.
 

Yep, that would be the one exception.

I have been to more than one MIAC basketball championship games in their own gym where opposing fans outnumber them 5-1 or more.
 

bizzle22 said:
Their football expenses are already closer to D2 level than D3 level. Mankato State spent $1,264,776 on football last year. St. Thomas spent $1,138,817. The next highest MIAC football school (Gustavus) had $506,131 in football expenses.

MSU is 13-0 this year and was 8-3 last year. Seems to me they have a pretty successful program.
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St. Thomas has become the NY Yankees of the MIAC. When you have more than double the budget of everyone else it's a huge advantage. Rolling over conference opponents 97-0 isn't good for the league. Right now the rest of the MIAC schools aren't joining the race in terms up ramping up athletic budgets, if anything you're seeing small liberal arts schools around the country scaling back on football budgets. But at the same time, St. Thomas is doing what it takes to compete at a Nat'l level. There's just such a big gap between the very top Div III programs in the country and the vast majority of the teams.
 

Saint Thomas enjoys being a large successful private college right smack in the Twin Cities metro area with large donor and recruiting base.

They are becoming the Mount Union of MN. All the other MIAC schools cannot compete financially with St. Thomas. They have a long storied rivalry against St. John's. Other than that, it is hard to tip the balance. Other MIAC schools do not spend or chose to not spend the kind of money St. Thomas is spending on athletics.

There is something magical about watching a football game at Saint John's University Clemens Stadium in Autumn. When the leaves turn colors, try walking in the woods or walking paths and enjoy it.

Get a loaf of Saint John's bread and a bottle of Chianti wine. Sit and enjoy the game. Nothing like it.
 


Livingat45north said:
St. Thomas has become the NY Yankees of the MIAC. When you have more than double the budget of everyone else it's a huge advantage. Rolling over conference opponents 97-0 isn't good for the league. Right now the rest of the MIAC schools aren't joining the race in terms up ramping up athletic budgets, if anything you're seeing small liberal arts schools around the country scaling back on football budgets. But at the same time, St. Thomas is doing what it takes to compete at a Nat'l level. There's just such a big gap between the very top Div III programs in the country and the vast majority of the teams.
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I agree that there are only a handful of programs in the nation at the DIII level that match what St Thomas, some of the UW schools, Mary Hardin, Mount Union, etc. are capable of doing. That is the way it is and I just don't see it changing, or see any of those schools moving up to DII. They would've done it by now, if they saw any advantage to doing it.

Unless somehow there comes a much easier or even possible path for those schools to, say for example, move just their football teams to at least FCS (while keeping rest of the athletic dept DIII) ... I don't think they'll budge from where they are, and really doubt their confs will try to expel them (if that's even possible).
 



Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Next.
 



GopherVotary said:
Both St. Thomas and Mankato lost today.
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They'll be right back next year.

Lot of good to great high school players in this state that will be passed over by DI programs (FCS or FBS), year after year, that will feed these teams and make them automatic top 10 in the nation at their respective DII or DIII levels.

And if not them, then whomever wins the NSIC and MIAC.
 

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