St. Thomas to DI-approved

[oldmantutters]

We have two FCS teams relatively close. One is Stetson Univ of the Pioneer. They went 100 years without football and thought the Pioneer was a way to get football started. Florida is football crazy, I have been to a couple of games...the stadium is small, the field ok, and the talent a bit less, but i don't think the final goal is to stay in the Pioneer forever. The university has a very good baseball team that has produced a couple of pretty recent high profile MLB players, which drove to a degree the desire to have a more well rounded athletic program. The other is Bethune Cookman University. They are talking about leaving the MEAC and joining the SWAC. They have had a modicum of success at the FCS level, but never developed into what they could for one reason or another.

I LOVE the Hatters!

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[tony]

I could see St. Thomas in the MVFC in a couple years.... they can use the time in the Pioneer to bump up their stadium capacity.

[GreenfieldBison]

I could see St. Thomas in the MVFC in a couple years.... they can use the time in the Pioneer to bump up their stadium capacity.

I don’t quite see how that would work in their existing footprint and there is a dearth of parking options there. There was some discussion of building new at the old Ford Motor plant south of there but that spot has now been spoken for.


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[tony]

I don’t quite see how that would work in their existing footprint and there is a dearth of parking options there. There was some discussion of building new at the old Ford Motor plant south of there but that spot has now been spoken for.


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Good grief! I just looked at Google Maps.... you aren't kidding - there is ZERO room for them to expand that stadium. They have the South Athletic fields space but that's it - and that's barely enough long enough for a football field.

Man, they would bleed money if they tried to do scholarship DI football.... on the other hand, they will be bleeding quite a bit from traveling all over the country for the Pioneer schedule too. That Ford plant site development deal that you mentioned would have to fall through for them to use that. That neighborhood is already so dense that the current residents might prefer a stadium to 10,000 more people.

Edit: If we ever do a home and home with them, they'll have to find an off-campus stadium or they'll be throwing money away (and I'd be willing to do a home-and-home with them for the Twin Cities exposure.)

[GreenfieldBison]

Good grief! I just looked at Google Maps.... you aren't kidding - there is ZERO room for them to expand that stadium. They have the South Athletic fields space but that's it - and that's barely enough long enough for a football field.

Man, they would bleed money if they tried to do scholarship DI football.... on the other hand, they will be bleeding quite a bit from traveling all over the country for the Pioneer schedule too. That Ford plant site development deal that you mentioned would have to fall through for them to use that. That neighborhood is already so dense that the current residents might prefer a stadium to 10,000 more people.

Edit: If we ever do a home and home with them, they'll have to find an off-campus stadium or they'll be throwing money away (and I'd be willing to do a home-and-home with them for the Twin Cities exposure.)

Maybe they’ll try to work a deal with the soccer club. Don’t know if that works but sure should be big enough.

[MNBison84]

The talk is that St. Thomas is doing this with basketball as likely the biggest beneficiaries. While it would be years down the road it has been mentioned in the Minneapolis papers that UST likely has their sights set on trying to join the Big East conference for basketball down the road to essentially try to become Minnesota's version of Marquette.


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[mnriverbison]

The talk is that St. Thomas is doing this with basketball as likely the biggest beneficiaries. . . for basketball down the road to essentially try to become Minnesota's version of Marquette.


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This makes the most sense to me. Like Tony said, facilities are really going to hurt them in football unless they just adopt Allianz as their home field (no clue if that is an option at all). But hoops will be much easier and more plausible to have an on-campus arena that can attract some good players and interest. Will be interesting. Could be a scenario where football is a non-entity and the hoops improvement brings good attention to the Bison and the conference itself. Could also be a scenario where they get to use Allianz for football, do backdoor schollies and totally screw us. WTF knows!

[BisonCardinal]

The talk is that St. Thomas is doing this with basketball as likely the biggest beneficiaries. While it would be years down the road it has been mentioned in the Minneapolis papers that UST likely has their sights set on trying to join the Big East conference for basketball down the road to essentially try to become Minnesota's version of Marquette.


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Bingo! Guessing they will be out of the Summit by the end of the decade, more likely sooner.

[JMB]

This makes the most sense to me. Like Tony said, facilities are really going to hurt them in football unless they just adopt Allianz as their home field (no clue if that is an option at all). But hoops will be much easier and more plausible to have an on-campus arena that can attract some good players and interest. Will be interesting. Could be a scenario where football is a non-entity and the hoops improvement brings good attention to the Bison and the conference itself. Could also be a scenario where they get to use Allianz for football, do backdoor schollies and totally screw us. WTF knows!

I think the availability of Allianz has a lot to do with the viability of the soccer team. If soccer comes out of COVID as a popular entertainment option, they are probably out of luck.. If the team struggles, they maybe looking for an income source.

The wildcard in all of this is the money. There is a lot of money down here and frankly not a lot of allegiance to the Gophers. If there is a school that has a chance to raise money, its St. Thomas.

[Bisonator98]

The tommies are better off dropping hockey and putting all that money into their BB programs. The Big East is a pipe dream at least for the forseeable future. They'd probably have to work thru the SL and the Horizon or MVC after that to even think of getting a sniff. Long road to hoe, it's doable but it aint happening over night or the next 10 years.