That remains in the leading five for Pioneer distance to St. Thomas, tracking Drake (250 ), Valparaiso (450 ), Butler (581) and Dayton (700 ). The other schools in the PFL will require trips of over 1,000 miles, led by 1,990 miles to San Diego.
” I anticipate establishing a rivalry with Drake in Des Moines for sure, and others to follow. We also feel as if the Pioneer will extend the St. Thomas brand and reach, to the New York location, to California, to several locations around the nation.”.
The Tommies AD was disrupted for this comment from me: “Marist and San Diego Toreros football do not precisely dominate the sports media in their markets.”.
For Glenn Caruso and the Tommies, the roadway mileage for this fall was set to be lowered by a St. Johns cash grab, with the relocation of its final football game vs. the Tommies on Nov. 7 from Collegeville (80 miles) to U.S. Bank Stadium (5 miles).
That opinion was communicated to Phil Esten, the Tommies athletic director, on Wednesday evening and he stated:.
The original St. Thomas 2020 football schedule required conference video games to be played at Gustavus, Bethel, Concordia and St. Johns. That would have called for trips totaling 400 miles, with 240 of those taken in by the Tommies buses jaunting to Moorhead to play Concordia.
Compose to Patrick Reusse by e-mailing [email protected] and including his name in the subject line.
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Esten stated: “Thats true, however playing football video games against those groups enable us to connect to alums and to high school trainees in those areas.”.
Esten was inquired about the strength of St. Thomas dedication to football, thinking about increased expenses, a made-for-Division III stadium and a strong potential for decreased attendance without the Johnnies and Bethel– to call 2– on the schedule.
” The eight-game conference schedule is also protected to have the more local challengers on your schedule every year. For us, that will be Drake and Valparaiso, as bus trips, and possibly Butler.
As for discovering a big-time league for D-1 mens hockey, Esten confessed theres an arena problem to be fixed prior to the CCHA (or, gulp, the NCHC) would think about adding the Tommies.
No competitions and choosing up the tab for 100-plus people to fly to points from Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (Marist) to dang near Tijuana … from here, that makes the Pioneer a problem for Tommies football.
Ive been talking with MIAC coaches because signing up with the St. Cloud Times in 1966 and they have groaned consistently about the journey to Moorhead as if they were Meriwether Lewis leading an exploration to the West.
On Wednesday, the Tommies cleared the NCAAs last administrative hurdle to make their historic move straight from Division III to Division I. Its a costly however basic transition for the 19 sports that can relocate to the Summit League, with its bearable local footprint for a university situated in St. Paul.
Football in the Pioneer … uff da.
” Absolutely devoted,” he stated. “Football is one of our flagship sports, and Glenn Caruso is among the finest in the business. Glenn had a fantastic recruiting year and hes excited to step up to another level.”.
That leaves two sizable problems: Committing to the non-scholarship, FCS Pioneer Football League, and how to get the eighth spot in the new CCHA beginning line in 2021-22 without a location to play?
” There are only two non-scholarship Division I football conferences, the Ivy League and the Pioneer. We will have prominent academic business in the Pioneer.
The ladiess WCHA has accepted the 1,000-seat arena in Mendota Heights at St. Thomas Academy (shared by the Tommies and the high school) as sufficient for league competition.
St. Thomas MIAC football competitors lie 3, 4, 10, 45, 45, 70, 80 and 240 miles away. The PFL likewise features a Morehead– spelled various, and situated 800 miles away in Kentucky.
The relocation is also fine for a 20th program, ladiess hockey, with the WCHA more than ready to embrace the Tommies as its eighth team. The league has been trying to find one because those chauvinistic clowns at North Dakota dropped womens hockey in 2017.
All of this is really much in doubt, with the coronavirus now an odds-on preferred to eliminate fall college sports– especially with Division II and III programs, where tight money is the way of existence.
Jacksonville University in Florida recently dropped football, lowering the Pioneer to nine groups. The Tommies and Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C., will make it 11 next fall.
When you hear “centers upgrades” required for the plunge to D-I, believe a Ridder-style arena (perhaps 3,000 seats) south of Summit Avenue that also could be utilized for essential basketball games. Thats a rumor, by the method, not information from Esten
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