Perra is right. More intense for those involved. However, not so for every other single person alive. I would rank it even with a Jackrabbit/Bison showdown.
I went to St. Thomas and was even on the team for a couple of years before I lost interest and I have to say D3 Football has not exactly gotten me real fired up in the last 25 plus years since, but I was always impressed with those 90's SJU team that killed everyone under the old man Gags, and it was pretty fun to see St. Thomas rise up into the top end of D3 the last few years under Caruso. They even had Mt. Union on the ropes for a while and just could not hold on to be D3 champs(or hold back the tide as it turned out)
If you watch Mt Union, Whitewater or the other top 6 or so teams of recent years, you will see a lot of speed and a lot of 0-275 to 315 lb. linemen. That said, they are D3 for a reason and lack depth and consistency of elite talent across the board, thus I must admit with regret, would not beat NDSU as I suggested a couple of weeks ago as much as that would be a great day to be part of.
What I do remember about playing football at St. Thomas was that there was a great deal of talent in the program back then. Possibly as much talent as now, but the current coach seems to get everything out of his players. There were some fast CBs and WRs, big linemen and some monster inside linebackers that would destroy the lesser MAC program's offensive players about every week. I remember a game where at least 10 Carleton players were carried off the field and the Carleton coaches were screaming at Coach Mark Dienhart during the handshake after the game and he just peered down at them, spun around and walked back to our side. Nothing dirty was done, it was just the reality of a fast tough defense, and a mobile, but big mean offensive line, playing a small, slow team. This happened a lot vs. teams like Carleton, Macalester, and St. Olaf.
Regarding the talent level back then, Lou Holtz decided to start a JV team at the U of M, and we played them in 1985. Usually in those JV games the 2nd tier and 3rd tier guys would get most of the snaps, and the next level down would get the rest. The rest of us would get to play in a blowout or special teams. There were 13 to 15 at my position and I was probably about #8- 10 or so (left and right sides, so two spots to start on defense) For this particular game, a few guys played for us that were upper 2nd tier but the type of guys that usually never played in the usual JV game against St. Olaf or Gustavus. For some reason, we went up 21-7 early and this was against some pretty good players.
We lost, Minnesota finally got serious and scored late couple of times and beat us, but I remember seeing guys like Ricky Foggie's backup out there and other players I later recall seeing out there a couple years later playing for Gutey I the real games.
I was at least allowed to play on the kickoff team, and I do remember flying down the field and just planting the returner, #11, Ed Penn? in a tag team tackle with the departed author Vince Flynn.
The point of all of that was that our little team was able to hang on the field for 3 quarters with a very talented, if not highly motivated group of DI players. I think the players on the field tomorrow at Target Field are probably a lot better than some give them credit for.