The commissioner of the athletic conference that St. Thomas seeks to join said a decision on the school’s moving to Division I would not be reached until at least January.

Summit League boss Tom Douple said in an interview Tuesday with TommieMedia that the NCAA did not give an outright “no” to the request to move from Division III.

“We know it’s an uphill battle,” Douple said. “But, you know, it’s a battle that we want to fight and try to push for. We think we’re making headway.”

Douple, who has run the league for 15 years, said multiple reasons jump out for inviting St. Thomas to the league.

“They’ve got a culture of winning, and we feel that was important,” he said. “But when you look at the campus, it starts first with the academics, and (St. Thomas’) academic profile is fantastic.”

St. Thomas also benefits from its large alumni base in the Twin Cities, Douple said, adding that St. Thomas is well-located compared to the other Summit League schools. The conference’s hub is in the Dakotas, given four of the nine schools reside in North or South Dakota, and the league’s headquarters is in Sioux Falls.

“We really solidify ourselves into what we consider the upper Midwest area. Obviously, St. Thomas fits into that profile as well,” Douple said.

St. Thomas’ position in the Summit League is reliant on unprecedented approval from the NCAA, which typically requires a school to function as DII before committing to DI. The approval process works through a series of waiver requests and committees, and according to Douple, these will continue through January (2020) and a decision will be reached by April at the latest.

The Summit League filed the waiver on behalf of St. Thomas, and Douple hopes the university’s extenuating circumstances will help boost the argument. For him, the fact that the waiver wasn’t immediately denied is a positive.

“We still want St. Thomas regardless how many years it takes—one year, two years, five years. St. Thomas is going to eventually be a part of our league. It’s just a matter of when,” Douple said.

The commissioner, who made four visits to campus in recent months, said the move would “generate a new media market.” In addition, an estimated 44,000 Summit League alums live in St. Paul or Minneapolis, so they would have an easier way to follow their teams through games at St. Thomas. Joining the league would increase overall interest in the university as well, Douple said.

St. Thomas brings a lot to the table, he said.

“You’re not a DIII profile, in my humble opinion, it’s much more geared to DI,” Douple said. “When you look at enrollment, sports and metropolitan area and alumni and everything else, it just really fits in the DI profile for sure.”

The University of Missouri-Kansas City is scheduled to join the league in 2020. If St. Thomas follows, the Tommies would be the 10th team in the conference.

Maddie Peters can be reached at pete9542@stthomas.edu.
Carly Noble, Justin Amaker and Brooklyn Madden contributed to this report.