UPDATE: 4:15 p.m. May 22. This story has been updated to include quotes from interviews with President Julie Sullivan and Athletic Director Phil Esten.

After almost 100 years in the conference, St. Thomas will be removed from the MIAC. The decision will affect all sports.

The MIAC released a statement that describes St. Thomas’ departure as “involuntarily.” The transition away from MIAC competition will begin now, but the university will continue to compete in the MIAC through spring 2021.

“The MIAC Presidents’ Council cites athletic competitive parity in the conference as a primary concern,” the statement said. “St. Thomas is one of seven founding members of the MIAC and will leave the conference in good standing with a long and appreciated history of academic and athletic success.”

St. Thomas President Julie Sullivan said that the MIAC presidents have been complaining for over a year about the competitive parity of the conference.

“It didn’t really escalate to me believing that that it would lead to being removed from the conference until the last couple months,” Sullivan said.

According to Sullivan, no formal vote took place to oust St. Thomas, but instead multiple schools threatened to leave the conference if St. Thomas remained.

“There became then a consensus, really, among all the schools that the MIAC would cease to exist if St. Thomas remained because there were an efficient number of schools who were going to leave and then others who (would) have no choice but to follow if they wanted a conference,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan negotiated to get St. Thomas two more years in the conference before the departure.

“I felt like that was really important for… our student athletes to compete in the MIAC and I felt it was really important for St. Thomas to have ample time to really be thoughtful and intentional about finding its next conference home,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan sent an email to the St. Thomas community calling the decision “disappointing” and saying today is a “difficult day.”

“St. Thomas expended tremendous effort to remain in the MIAC and stabilize the conference. However, the presidents came to a consensus that the conference itself would cease to exist in its current form if St. Thomas remained,” Sullivan wrote.

Public complaints about St. Thomas’ relatively larger enrollment and athletic success began earlier this spring. With 6,200 undergraduate students, its size is nearly double St. Olaf, the next largest school. Currently, St. Thomas sits 10th in the Learfield IMG Director’s Cup, a ranking of all Division III athletic teams’ finishes in the country. The next MIAC school is Carleton at No. 50.

St. Thomas’ desire to stay in the MIAC has been made clear for weeks. Sports Information Director Gene McGivern told TommieMedia last month,“We support the MIAC, we want to be in the MIAC and we want to be in Division III…we’re doing everything we can to help stabilize membership.”

If St. Thomas hadn’t chosen to leave, nine of the 13 presidents would have had to vote to change the bylaws to allow St. Thomas to be kicked out by putting an enrollment cap on conference membership. A vote on a formal dismissal would have followed.

“As a founding member of the conference, we are proud of our history and heritage in the MIAC, and are committed to the league and Division III ideals,” St. Thomas Athletic Director Phil Esten said in an April email. “We are very interested in doing what we can to stabilize conference membership now and into the future.”

Sullivan said Esten will lead an athletics advisory committee to find a new home for the Tommies.

“You have to be invited to join a conference, so we also have to reach out to determine which conferences are potentially interested in us as a member and then determine where do we think our best home would be,” Sullivan said. “Ultimately, it’ll be a decision that I will recommend to our board of trustees, but they will be the ones that have to consider it and approve in any direction we go.”

A closed forum for student athletes, coaches and athletic staff will be held Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in the OEC Auditorium.

“It’s important for our student athletes to know that we care about them, for our student athletes to know that we’re here for them,” Esten said. “That’s our primary purpose. Our core purpose is to provide them with a great experience and we want to get them to ask questions and make sure that they feel as if their voice is being heard.”

Read the MIAC’s full statement on their website.

Solveig Rennan can be reached at renn6664@stthomas.edu.
Carly Noble, Samantha HoangLong and Matt Curry contributed to this report.