Shooter: Now there's talk of St. Thomas exploring D1 and joining the Big East

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Charley walters is sports porn. What he writes doesnt happen in real life
 

They would be trying to sell themselves to the Big East as a "Twin Cities Marquette". They have roughly the same number of students and endowment as Marquette, so it is an interesting idea.

In contrast, both have far more students and a much higher endowments than Butler and Xavier. And Butler has varsity football, which plays in the Pioneer League. That would be where UST football would go, if they kept football as part of the varsity sports. I could also see them dropping it.

Hockey would be another interesting decision. Keep it at varsity and try to find a DI home, or drop it down to club. Only one member of the Big East currently has hockey, Providence.


The other interesting thing is UConn is joining the Big East next year, putting them at an uneven 11 members. They could stay at 11 members and have a 20 game round-robin basketball schedule. Or they could look at adding a 12th member. St Louis U might be another possibility, for a geographic expansion. Would "bridge the gap" between Omaha (Creighton) and the rest of the conference. Or they could look at a school like Dayton that would add more bball prowess.

I suppose a couple other "off the wall" ideas for the Big East to explore: Duquesne (Pittsburgh) and Loyola Chicago. The former has a good size enrollment and decent endowment size. Not much success in the A10. The latter isn't even in the A10 and the Big East already has a Chicago school, but Loyola has a large student body and a large endowment, and of course had the final four run a couple seasons ago.
 

St Thomas received an invitation from the Summit League, it was announced today.

They will join, pending a waiver from the NCAA.
 


Clearly, in my opinion, the grand vision and hope is to get a bball game between St Thomas and the U up to a level closer to what Wisconsin has with Marquette.
 

i am sure St. Thomas will try to build it up slowly with most games remaining on campus, with a few showcase games at the Xcel Energy Center when possible.

I can see Saint Thomas trying to get Summit League foes like NDSU, SDSU, UND, who have fans in the area, to attend games in a bigger venue. Maybe Target Center might be in the mix as well, since it is about the same distance from campus as Xcel.

If Saint Thomas can get any interesting non conference games booked, I bet they would be at the big venues, in the same way Georgetown, St. Johns, De Paul, Xavier, Cincinnati and others handled the urban Basketball experience over the years.
 
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oak_street1981 said:
i am sure St. Thomas will try to build it up slowly with most games remaining on campus, with a few showcase games at the Xcel Energy Center when possible.

I can see Saint Thomas trying to get Summit League foes like NDSU, SDSU, UND, who have fans in the area, to attend games in a bigger venue. Maybe Target Center might be in the mix as well, since it is about the same distance from campus as Xcel.

If Saint Thomas can get any interesting non conference games booked, I bet they would be at the big venues, in the same way Georgetown, St. Johns, De Paul, Xavier, Cincinnati and others handled the urban Basketball experience over the years.
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Woah woah woah. Slow down here. St. Thomas is very unlikely to be able to bump up to Marquette, St Johns, or Xavier levels for quite awhile. More reasonable to be a Fairfield. Also will have competition from Augustana as a new D1 school in a good/growing town with good facilities. I respect UST as a great catholic institution, but let the expect Stinson be reasonable for a bit here. Unless they can use a catholic connection, they are not getting a big non conference game at home. Big dogs pay the St. Thomas's of the world to come to them. Most logical idea may be to build a 3500-5000 dual hockey/ball arena. Will be interesting to watch for sure.
 

manderson1984 said:
Woah woah woah. Slow down here. St. Thomas is very unlikely to be able to bump up to Marquette, St Johns, or Xavier levels for quite awhile. More reasonable to be a Fairfield. Also will have competition from Augustana as a new D1 school in a good/growing town with good facilities. I respect UST as a great catholic institution, but let the expect Stinson be reasonable for a bit here. Unless they can use a catholic connection, they are not getting a big non conference game at home. Big dogs pay the St. Thomas's of the world to come to them. Most logical idea may be to build a 3500-5000 dual hockey/ball arena. Will be interesting to watch for sure.
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I think you missed the point, we all know Saint Thomas is not going to be at Big East level any time soon but that does not mean that they cannot entice a bigger name opponent to travel to play at the Xcel Energy Center or Target Center for a game. (assumed to be a win) They also will have some ties to the D1AA Pioneer League so they cam work with Butler, San Diego Dayton, Valpo, and others to get a game at the X for good expupure.
 



oak_street1981 said:
I think you missed the point, we all know Saint Thomas is not going to be at Big East level any time soon but that does not mean that they cannot entice a bigger name opponent to travel to play at the Xcel Energy Center or Target Center for a game. (assumed to be a win) They also will have some ties to the D1AA Pioneer League so they cam work with Butler, San Diego Dayton, Valpo, and others to get a game at the X for good expupure.
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Pioneer League for football will help them have a shot at bringing a school, but most won't come here even for a win. Game at the X is probably in the future for an NDSU/UND/SDSU game. Best bet will be to hope that US Bank keeps their series going on. Otherwise it will take some time. Very rarely can you get a Kansas State to go up to Fargo. Going to take decade at minimum most likely.
 

manderson1984 said:
Woah woah woah. Slow down here. St. Thomas is very unlikely to be able to bump up to Marquette, St Johns, or Xavier levels for quite awhile. More reasonable to be a Fairfield. Also will have competition from Augustana as a new D1 school in a good/growing town with good facilities. I respect UST as a great catholic institution, but let the expect Stinson be reasonable for a bit here. Unless they can use a catholic connection, they are not getting a big non conference game at home. Big dogs pay the St. Thomas's of the world to come to them. Most logical idea may be to build a 3500-5000 dual hockey/ball arena. Will be interesting to watch for sure.
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They don't have anyplace near the campus to do this, maybe up off of university avenue.
 

jovs said:
They don't have anyplace near the campus to do this, maybe up off of university avenue.
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Supposedly they’re looking at building a new b-ball/hockey arena where the football field is, and then playing football off-campus.

Probably makes sense for them, they’d get more use out of the arena.
 

Play football at the soccer stadium and build the new Hockey/B-Ball stadium on campus.
 



Otis said:
Play football at the soccer stadium and build the new Hockey/B-Ball stadium on campus.
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Another option, possibly, would be to move the baseball diamond to the southeast corner of the southern athletic field (similar to how the softball diamond is in the northeast corner) and then build the new arena where the baseball field is currently.

Then you can keep the football stadium, which is just fine for the Pioneer League, and more importantly keep the track.


I think it makes more sense for UST to focus on basketball, and if they can afford it, hockey too, than it does football. I don't think they can ever really compete with the Dakota schools, they already have such a huge advantage and head start in that sport, and it's very expensive even at the FCS (formerly DI-AA) level.
 

Rumor that I have heard more than once. St. Thomas is looking to purchase St. Kates and create another campus. I've never heard anything official but have heard this from multiple people that are not connected to each other.
 

MNfootballfan said:
Rumor that I have heard more than once. St. Thomas is looking to purchase St. Kates and create another campus. I've never heard anything official but have heard this from multiple people that are not connected to each other.
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I have heard this rumor as well. I also heard that UST looked into buying Town and Country club. Just recently I saw a tweet about UST buying the Shriner's Hospital. A lot of it has to do with starting a nursing school I believe.
 

MNfootballfan said:
Rumor that I have heard more than once. St. Thomas is looking to purchase St. Kates and create another campus. I've never heard anything official but have heard this from multiple people that are not connected to each other.
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More students to pay fees for athletics, I guess.

More land to relocate the baseball stadium and/or track. Phase out St Kate sports, students become Tommies. Volleyball and women’s b-ball can play in St Kate’s arena.
 

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