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The University of St. Thomas, in Minnesota, will have to find a new sports league to play in within two years, because the other 12 private colleges in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference are tired of losing to it all the time.
"After extensive membership discussions, the University of St. Thomas will be involuntarily removed from membership in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference," the league said in a prepared statement Wednesday, citing "athletic competitive parity" as the primary reason. St. Thomas has won the league's All-Sports Competition (which tracks members' cumulative success in all the sports it offers) for men and for women every year since 2007-08. Its football team has been particularly dominant, outscoring conference opponents by an average of 42-17 in 2018 and winning one 2017 game, against St. Olaf College, by a score of 97-0.
St. Thomas, which helped found the conference nearly 100 years ago, is two to three times larger than its league peers. In a statement, its president, Julie Sullivan, said St. Thomas "expended tremendous effort to remain in the MIAC and stabilize the conference." She said the university would explore other options before it is forced out of the MIAC in 2021.
