After missing the NCAA playoffs last season, the No. 20-ranked St. Thomas football team is returning to the national tournament with an at-large bid and will travel to Waverly, Iowa, Saturday to take on No. 5-ranked Wartburg College.

Despite losses to St. John’s and Bethel this year, St. Thomas rattled off three straight wins to end the season – including one over a ranked opponent in Concordia-Moorhead – to put itself in the hunt for an at-large playoff bid.

After Bethel lost a 62-61 double-overtime thriller at home against Augsburg in the final week of the regular season, St. Thomas took over as the second-best MIAC team in the national rankings, opening the door for a fifth playoff appearance in six years for coach Glenn Caruso’s team.

“(We’re) very happy to be in a tremendous tournament but most importantly really happy to have an opportunity to have the team together for one more week, and that’s what’s guaranteed, so we’ll make the most of it,” Caruso said.

St. Thomas will now take on undefeated Wartburg College at Walston-Hoover Stadium. The Knights are the champions of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and are averaging more than 45 points per game on offense, while allowing about 12 points per game on defense. Wartburg quarterback Logan Schrader leads the team with 27 passing touchdowns and just five interceptions, completing 64.3 percent of his passes and averaging 257 yards per game through the air.

Caruso said some things are out of the Tommies’ hands.

“Our team never having played down there is something that we’re gonna have to take into consideration, but at the end of the day, it’s minimal compared to having the opportunity to be in the tournament,” Caruso said. “We’ve had the fortune of watching a lot of games down there as a coaching staff over the years and also watching a lot of their film because teams from our league have played them.”

The Knights share two mutual opponents with the Tommies from the regular season. Wartburg opened the season by traveling to Minneapolis to play Augsburg where the Knights sacked quarterback Ayrton Scott six times and held the high-powered Auggie offense to just 5 yards rushing and 164 yards of total offense en route to a 40-3 pummeling at Edor Nelson Field. The next week, Wartburg hosted Bethel, which entered the game ranked seventh in the nation and rolled up nearly 500 yards of total offense to give the Royals their first loss of the season by 31-14.

“When you’re playing a team that this generation of student-athlete or this generation of coaching staff has not played, the unknown is really one of the bigger hurdles,” Caruso said. “To be able to use other teams in your league that you know quite a bit about as a barometer is a huge advantage.”

St. Thomas is returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2012 when the Tommies reached the Stagg Bowl for the first time in school history before eventually losing to Mount Union 28-10.

Caruso said there will be some differences between this year’s playoff run compared with 2012’s because the team couldn’t prepare quite as early.

“(If) you’re a 10-0 team and you’ve been in it three or four years in a row, you kind of know what’s coming down the pike so you can prepare with a little bit more clarity,” Caruso said. “In this scenario, without really knowing who we were going to play or if we were going to be in, we’ve got to do a lot of that work tonight.”

Caruso mentioned the team’s experience in postseason play will be beneficial.

“One of the things we’re very fortunate to have in our background is the experience,” Caruso said. “Being comfortable in an uncomfortable situation is what that experience gives us.”

Three other Minnesota schools join St. Thomas in the NCAA playoffs: St. John’s, Macalester and St. Scholastica. St. John’s earned an automatic bid to the tournament as this year’s MIAC champions, while Macalester and St. Scholastica also earned automatic bids for winning their respective conferences. Macalester is in the NCAA tournament for the first time in its school history, while St. John’s is returning to the playoffs for the first time since its last MIAC title in 2009.

Tom Pitzen contributed to this report.