There is no doubt the presidents of the schools in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference who were in favor of having St. Thomas “involuntary” leave the league in two years never thought the story would be on the front page of ESPN.com. They may be smarter than me with graduate school/master’s degrees and doctorates, but they don’t understand public perception at all.
The problems in the MIAC are much bigger than St. Thomas. Last year in football Concordia defeated Augsburg 54-7, Hamline 55-0, and Carlton 51-14; so the Cobbers have been beating the “have nots” as much as the Tommies have. I haven’t heard any talk of Concordia getting booted from the league.
When I have people challenge me on my stance they say, “the Tommies have an enrollment three times of most of the schools in the MIAC;” to where I say, “Then why did St. Johns with an enrollment of 1700 defeat St. Thomas with 6200 undergraduates this year?”
Enrollment has nothing to do with it. In the Big 10 Northwestern defeated Minnesota last year on the football field with an 8300 enrollment, compared to the 34,000 that wear the maroon and gold on the Twin Cities campus.
Rumors are that Concordia President Dr. William Craft was on the side of forcing St. Thomas out, which is unfortunate because I know many in the Cobber athletic department who are embarrassed by this cowardness, and I, as someone who cheers for the school is too.
The Concordia athletic department is in a tough spot, they work hard and want to be as good as St. Thomas in all sports and always want to defeat St. John’s in football; but their president is content being at the level of Carleton and Hamline siding with the MIAC schools who wanted the Tommies out. Terry Horan, Chris Coste and other Cobber coaches/staff deserve better.
