The Jackrabbits and Coyotes may soon have a Summit League rival, but it won’t be Augustana. Not yet, anyway.
St. Thomas University, the Div. III school in the Twin Cities that was voted out of its own Minnesota athletics conference — perceivably because of its comparatively large enrollment and dominance in football — announced Friday it has received an invitation into the Div. I Summit League.
The NCAA requires a waiver to go directly from Division III to Division I without a stop at Division II. If the waiver is approved, the school will join the Summit League in 2021. The Tommies would then have two more years in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletics Conference.
The leap from D3 to D1 would be is unprecedented.
St. Thomas has an undergraduate enrollment 6,395 and an endowment of $436 million. By comparison, Augustana has an undergraduate enrollment of 1,792 and an endowment $82.1 million.
“Joining the Summit League would be a unique and exciting opportunity for St. Thomas, allowing us to significantly expand our impact and reach,” St. Thomas president Julie Sullivan said in the announcement. “It is a strong Midwest Division I conference that includes both public and private competitors.”
The Summit League does not compete in football. Douple on Friday confirmed to Bison Radio 1660 in Fargo that St. Thomas will apply for Pioneer Legaue membership for their football program.
“The Presidents Council unanimously and enthusiastically voted to support the membership application made to the league by the University of St. Thomas,” wrote Summit League commissioner Tom Douple, calling the private school “the right fit.”
As Argus Leader SDSU reporter Matt Zimmer tweeted Friday:
“St. Thomas getting booted from the MIAC is the best thing that’s happened to the Summit League since the basketball tournament came to Sioux Falls. Well-funded, strong-academic school in a metro area. Gives the SL a much-needed presence in Minnesota and another baseball team. The Summit League basketball tournaments have been staged in Sioux Falls every March since 2009.
It is of note that Augustana — whose presence in Sioux Falls would also undoubtedly boost the ticket revenue and buzz of the Summit League’s most lucrative and attended event — has not received an invitation to the Summit League despite the fact that school announced intention to move from Div. II to Div. I athletics last December — several months before STM was voted out of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletics Association.
STM was voted out of the MIAC this past summer, and its options appeared to be staying in Div. III and joining Wisconsin’s conference at that level, moving to Div. II and perhaps applying for membership in the Northern Sun conference — where Augustana currently resides — or moving to Div I.
The Summit League currently has nine members — South Dakota State, South Dakota, North Dakota State, North Dakota, Omaha, Denver, Oral Roberts, Western Illinois and Fort Wayne.
Fort Wayne announced a couple months ago it is leaving the league for the Horizon League after this academic year.
Missouri-Kansas City will re-join the Summit League (after a seven-year stint in the Western Athletics Conference)s in the 2020-21 academic year.
The Summit League has had nearly 40 different members in its 35-year history and moved its offices from its original geographic center in Chicago to Sioux Falls last summer.
The new offices are located on land owned by Sanford Health at the Sanford Sports Complex.
Sanford is the chief sponsor of the Summit League men’s and women’s basketball tournament in Sioux Falls.
Sanford CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft told KWSN in June of 2018 he considers Douple to be a “close, personal friend,” and described Augustana president Stephanie Herseth-Sanlin the same way in that interview.
Krabbenhoft is also a major Augustana booster. Sanford, which owns Augie’s new basketball home arena, the Sanford Pentagon on the Sanford Sports Complex, is Augie athletics’ largest corporate sponsor, while also paying each Summit League school endowments over the next five years.
The Presidents Council must vote to approve an invitation to Augustana. A major meeting of Summit League presidents reportedly will take shape im Sioux Falls in early November.
