The St. Thomas Tommies are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent University of Saint Thomas. The school's athletic program includes 22 varsity sports teams. Their mascot is a

Tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus '' Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on u ...

named Tommie, and the school colors are purple and gray. The university participates in the NCAA's Division I as members of the

Summit League The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...

in all varsity sports except for football, which competes in the

Pioneer Football League The Pioneer Football League (PFL) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as a football-only conference. It has member s ...

, the men's ice hockey team, which competes in the

Central Collegiate Hockey Association The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) is a college athletic conference that participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The current CCHA began play in the 2021–22 season; a previous incarnation, which the curre ...

, and the women's ice hockey team, which competes in the

Western Collegiate Hockey Association The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

. St. Thomas offers 11 varsity sports for men and 11 for women.

History

Varsity intercollegiate sports began in 1904, and St. Thomas celebrated 100 years of varsity athletics in 2003–04. In 1920, St. Thomas was one of seven charter members of the

Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) is a college athletic conference which competes in NCAA Division III. All 13 of the member schools are located in Minnesota and are private institutions, with only two being non-sectarian. ...

(MIAC). Since 1973, when the MIAC became affiliated with NCAA Division III, St. Thomas has won more than one-third of the conference's 39 team championships, with 15 NCAA titles in eight different sports, as well as 13 NCAA team runner-up finishes, which includes three additional sports. Overall, St. Thomas has top-five national team finishes in 21 different sports. In May 2019, the MIAC expelled St. Thomas from the league, due to concerns about "athletic competitive parity." As ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' put it, "St. Thomas is just too good at sports for the rest of the MIAC," which was causing other teams to consider abandoning the league and threatening its continued existence. On October 5, 2019, St. Thomas officially announced its intent to move directly from Division III to Division I, a move that had not occurred since the NCAA established Divisions I, II, and III in 1973, and that was specifically prohibited in 2011. Normally a transition from Division III to I requires a stop in Division II, an approximate 12-year process to complete. St. Thomas declared that it was requesting a waiver from the NCAA to allow the move, and also announced that it had been invited to join the

, a Division I conference that was supporting the school's waiver request. On July 15, 2020, the NCAA granted permission for St. Thomas to move directly from Division III to Division I beginning in 2021. Already invited to join the Summit League, all but three of the school's 22 teams will compete in the conference that championed its move up. The football team will join the

, the non-scholarship football-only conference with teams in New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and California. Men's ice hockey would join the CCHA and the women's ice hockey team would play in the

WCHA The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

Sports sponsored

Source:

National championships

Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971 to govern collegiate women's athletics in the United States and to administer national championships (see AIAW Champions). It evolved out of the Commission on Interc ...

(AIAW) * Women's cross country 1981

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

) * Women's cross country 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987 * Men's cross country 1984, 1986 * Baseball 2001, 2009 * Softball 2004, 2005 * Men's indoor track & field 1985 * Women's basketball 1991 * Men's basketball 2011, 2016 * Volleyball 2012

References

External links

* {{Minnesota Sports University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)