St. Thomas players line up for the National Anthem at O’Shaughnessy Stadium. Patty Viverito, the commissioner of both the Pioneer Football League and the Missouri Valley Football Conference, said she had never heard of St. Thomas before news of its MIAC expulsion. (Tina O’Malley/TommieMedia file photo)
St. Thomas football’s future remains unclear after the commissioner of two Division I football conferences tamped down reports about the program’s potential new home.
Published reports this fall indicated St. Thomas is exploring the non-scholarship Division I Pioneer Football League and the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
“St. Thomas has not asked me about membership in the Missouri Valley Football Conference,” Commissioner Patty Viverito said. “(The Pioneer League is) not on the table. It’s not been put on the table. And actually any speculation in the media about that doesn’t help (St. Thomas).”
In an interview Tuesday, Viverito, who has been the commissioner of the Pioneer Football League since 1994 and commissioner of Missouri Valley football since the mid-80s, said she had never heard of St. Thomas before news of its expulsion from the MIAC last spring.
“When I read the newspaper accounts of St. Thomas’ interest in going to Division I, and I had to look it up in the directory online,” Viverito said. “I was not familiar at all, quite frankly, with St. Thomas, until the issue of their membership and their current Division III league was brought up in the national media.”
The St. Thomas football program must find a new conference following an invitation from the non-football playing D-I Summit League. That responsibility falls on St. Thomas Vice President and Director of Athletics Phil Esten and other university administrators.
“As we’ve looked at all of the options, and the Summit League obviously not having football, we’ve got to find an affiliate membership with one of the football leagues if the NCAA does ultimately approve the waiver. And right now we are, we would pursue membership in the Pioneer Football League,” Esten said.
Esten described that pursuit as at a “high level.”
“I think for anybody outside of this they want to see, want us to make sure we are working through the right process,” Esten said.
Viverito emphasized that an NCAA waiver is “complicated, and it’s unique,” noting that no institution has ever lost membership in a Division III conference for the reasons that have been circulated publicly for St. Thomas.
“I do know that the path to Division I is intentionally challenging to ensure that institutions that make that jump to Division I are fully prepared to manage that in a way that is responsible, both fiscally and with rules compliance,” Viverito said.
If the NCAA rejects the Division I waiver request, that leaves St. Thomas the options of Division II or Division III.
Carly Noble can be reached at nobl1781@stthomas.edu.
This whole issue is ridiculous. It has become a total distraction to everything good about UST. Let’s ask for admittance to the W.I.A.C. where we know they have high standards as D-3 institutions. They have all of the sports that we have and they are in our neighboring State. Let’s not be forced into something that we are not.