A Football Team is Being 'Involuntarily Removed' From A Conference For Being Too Good

It’s hard not to laugh when you hear what’s going on in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference right now.

It is all revolves around MIAC member school University of St. Thomas. They are a pretty good football team…and most other sports, but mainly football. So good, in fact, that the other schools are tired of losing to the Tommies, and are forcing them out of the league.

Don’t believe me? Here’s the ENTIRE 94-word press release:

MIAC announces conference membership change

May 22, 2019

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — After extensive membership discussions, the University of St. Thomas will be involuntarily removed from membership in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). The MIAC Presidents’ Council cites athletic competitive parity in the conference as a primary concern. St. Thomas will begin a multi-year transition immediately and meanwhile is eligible to compete as a full member of the MIAC through the end of spring 2021.

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.

I’ll say this…after reading about it, St. Thomas is probably not a good fit for that conference.

Here are a few of the stats the league is citing in their decision to kick UST out:

– The University of St. Thomas has won 12 straight men’s and women’s MIAC All-Sports Awards (2008-2019).
– The University of St. Thomas won 47% (155) of all MIAC Championships (both team and individual sports) awarded from 2003-2018. Over the last five years (2013-18), UST won 62 MIAC Championships (56%).
– The University of St. Thomas earned 32% (67 of 210) of the MIAC’s Automatic Qualifiers to the NCAA Postseason (playoff champion, plus football regular season champion) from 2003-2018. UST earned 25 AQs (36%) in the last five years (2013-18).

On the other hand, at least as far as the football team is concerned, they haven’t really been destroying the competition to the point of conference expulsion! They are on a pretty good run, for sure, having won the conference championship six times the last nine years and going to the D-III national championship game twice. But is that good enough for expulsion from the league?!

HELL NO!

If you were worried about St Thomas kicking your butt before, I bet the scores will be a bit more lopsided with this chip on their shoulder the next two years.

I hope St. Thomas uses this as an opportunity to grow their program and compete at a higher level with the same sustained success. I hope the MIAC relishes in their mediocrity.