https://www.si.com/college-football/2019/05/22/st-thomas-removed-miac-competitive-parity-division-iii
It's not necessarily just football here. They dominate every other sport in the conference as well. From a competitive balance standpoint on sports across the board, it seems they've outgrown the conference.
It seems their conference just stinks because they do not have a lot of national championships in sports (except for the dance team).
Don't forget that this is D3 we're talking about here. Conference priorities are very different, as they should be in a non-scholarship conference mostly comprised of small liberal arts schools. St Thomas being 3x the size of other schools and focusing on athletics is the opposite of what the MIAC wants, which is very low level athletics.
Is there something in the bylaws (<---not sure if that's the right term) quantifying when a school is in violation of what the "conference wants"?
Nope. But in the end, conferences are just teams who want to play together. If enough teams don't want you, then there you have it. Remember, this is D3.
Again, this is D3. The whole point of D3 was to create a place for schools who want to compete without being goaded into an athletics arms race. They chose to focus on athletics recently. If they want to play at a higher level, cool, their call, find a conference where that’s acceptable. Let’s not pretend these other schools taking issue with it are in the wrong as they get slaughtered year after year.
The MIAC is all academic schools. They build new academic buildings, not new sports facilities. And St Thomas just recently decided to pour money into athletics as well. They outgrew the conference. They spend money like they want to be a sports school, which is fine, but not a fit for the MIAC.
Doesn't change anything. The conference does not exist without them. I would argue that this can't possibly be about education as St Thomas meets or exceeds all academic requirements for the conference. This is all about wins and losses. They can't beat them so they get rid of them.
Bold statement. Maybe the conference wouldn’t exist in its current form, but just because they were a founding member doesn’t necessarily make that true.
It’s about parity.
You do realize Vanderbilt is an elite baseball school so they do add tremendous value to the conference's competitiveness.Kick Vanderbilt out of the SEC and bring in St. Thomas, give UGA and UF a run for their money in the East.
