A Division I offer from the nine-member Summit League has been extended to St. Thomas, according to President Julie Sullivan.

The Summit League consists of Denver, North Dakota, North Dakota State, Nebraska Omaha, Oral Roberts, Purdue Fort Wayne, South Dakota, South Dakota State and Western Illinois.

“Joining the Summit League would be a unique and exciting opportunity for St. Thomas, allowing us to significantly expand our impact and reach,” Sullivan said.

St. Thomas was “involuntarily” removed from the MIAC last May, with the conference citing “athletic competitive parity in the conference” as a reason.

Following the St. Thomas Board of Trustees decision to submit an application to the Summit League, the presidents of the league voted to extend St. Thomas an invitation on Thursday.

“If the NCAA approves the waiver, our new conference will be the Summit League for 19 of our 22 sports,” athletic director Phil Esten said Friday. “We will have to find affiliate members for football, men’s hockey and women’s hockey.”

The move to the Summit League will require an NCAA waiver from its current rules, which state that Division III schools can only reclassify to Division II. According to the St. Thomas website, the Summit League currently is the school’s only Division I option.

Tommie Athletics held a forum for student athletes to ask questions Friday afternoon in the O’Shaughnessy Educational Center auditorium. Several athletes refused to comment after the meeting, and sources said administrators told the students not to speak to the media.

Summit League Commissioner Tom Douple said in a statement Friday, “The President’s Council unanimously and enthusiastically voted to support the membership application made to the League by the University of St. Thomas. The vote is the result of months of due diligence and extensive research including numerous campus visits, stakeholder meetings and data collection. While the League recognizes the extraordinary efforts ahead for UST to seek Division I membership, we believe this institution is the right fit for The Summit League and we will support the reclassification process.”

The Summit League schools do not compete for a football or hockey championship. Teams that play Division I football are in another conference for that sport, such as Western Illinois in the Missouri Valley Conference. Oral Roberts and Omaha, in other examples, do not field football teams.

The Star Tribune reported that St. Thomas is considering the Pioneer League or Missouri Valley Conference for football. Four Summit League members including North Dakota State, North Dakota, South Dakota and South Dakota State currently compete in the Missouri Valley Conference in football.

“It’s a highly competitive league,” Esten said. “One of the best in the country under Commissioner Tom Douple. Several of their schools have reclassified from Division II to Division I. That model has proven to work, so that’s very appealing to us.”

St. Thomas will leave the MIAC in the spring of 2021. The Summit League headquarters is in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Carly Noble, Rae Beaner, Althea Larson, Alexis Okafor and Justin Amaker contributed to this report.