At long last, the University of St. Thomas received approval from the NCAA to move to Division I starting in 2021.
There had never been a university that moved from Division-III athletics straight to Division-I. Until now.
The University of St. Thomas, a private Roman Catholic University based in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, will make the big leap in 2021. The Tommies leave behind the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and head for the Summit League for all but two sports.
Athletic Director Phil Esten is not envisioning instant success on the field, but is optimistic that in time, St. Thomas will compete.
“When you look at our institutional profile athletics aside, there are a number of private urban Catholic universities across the country that look a lot like St. Thomas,” Esten said. “A few of them include Marquette, Creighton, Villanova, Gonzaga, Loyola Marymount. As you take a look at universities who have used athletics as a launching point from a communications standpoint, from a brand and marketing standpoint, I think those are models that we could probably take a look at.”
Esten does not pretend that losing will be easy for him or the alumni while the Tommies find their footing. All sports will play in the Summit League except for football and hockey. Football will play in the non-scholarship Pioneer League while hockey remains undecided on the mens side. The women will play in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.
“We are all accustomed to being successful and to enjoying success,” Esten said. “This is going to be a journey for us, so being patient and really building a foundation for success for the future is something that I think is probably going to be the most challenging for all of us.”
Esten played baseball at St. Thomas in the ’90s before returning as athletic director in 2018 after stints at multiple D-I schools including Minnesota, Ohio State and Penn State. Maintaining a similar culture that exists at St. Thomas now matters to Esten.
“The vast majority of athletes at D-I as well as D-III don’t go on to become professional athletes,” Esten said. “They go on to be professional something else. The majority of them are thinking about what is next for them in their lives. Thats something that I don’t think is going to change at St. Thomas. Not wavering from that cultural approach is something that will be really important to us.”
With that being said, don’t take winning off the table.
“We are only the second full Division-I school now in the state of Minnesota a state that is the 22nd-largest state in the country,” Esten said. “We certainly have the corporate capacity, the population capacity to support a lot of really strong high school sports. If we do this right, we can be competitive. Who knows how long it will take, but I do think that the Tommies are a school that can be competitive over time.”