UST’s full-speed climb to Division I

The University of St. Thomas was a founding member and an athletic juggernaut for most of its 99 years in the Division III Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), but the small-school league eventually grew tired of the Tommies’ success and pushed them out, mainly over competitive parity concerns, in 2019. They had until 2021 to leave.

As a result, the St. Paul school did the unthinkable, making the leap from non-athletic-scholarship level to the much bigger Division I, normally a 12-year, painstaking process that goes first to Division II then to the top level. But UST asked for and received a waiver to move directly from DIII to DI beginning in 2021, a five-year process.

The Tommies proved to be quick learners and were approved for full DI membership in 2026, and began wearing the DI letter in 2025.

We covered St. Thomas for almost two decades, and naturally we would follow them in their unprecedented and historic journey.

State of Tommie athletics

Athletic Director Phil Esten chose the first day of September to speak to reporters, including MSR, and school staffers, giving his “State of Tommie Athletics” address at a noontime luncheon at Anderson Arena.

The Tommies now compete in most sports as members of four conferences: The Summit League, Pioneer Football League, Western Collegiate Hockey Association, and, in its first season, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference as its 10th member. All programs are now eligible for conference tournaments and NCAA postseason berths.

The teams have “the perfect conference platform,” Esten said. “These conferences provide geographic, brand and competitive advantages while offering a shared commitment to comprehensive excellence for our student-athletes.”

“We’re really in a completely different stratosphere than where we were when we started. We were initially told (it) would take 12 years,” the Tommies AD pointed out, adding that the school has received increased national exposure through traditional and social media outlets, and that the athletes last season did “approximately 2,300 service hours with 80 different community partners,” said Esten.

“We are still in the business at the University of St. Thomas, offering our student-athletes a transformative experience while finding a way to excel in the classroom, engage in our community, develop holistically and compete in a meaningful way.

“I’m bullish about our brand,” reaffirmed Esten.

Examining diversity in administration and rosters

After his 10-minute remarks, MSR asked Esten about his “state” of UST Athletics, diversity-wise, both in his administration and among the teams. Beforehand, we did an unscientific analysis using the school’s athletic staff directory.

We found only eight Black staff members (4.7%) among the 168 people listed on the UST athletic staff: zero head coaches, but five Black assistant coaches, two Black assistant ADs and one equipment manager.

“It has ebbed and flowed over the last five years,” explained Esten. “If you looked at the staff directory five years ago, that percentage would have been much higher. And if you look at the directory a year from now, it may look different from a diversity standpoint than it does today.

“It starts with recruiting and making our jobs known in a very diverse way so that we can recruit; we do have nationally across the country. We hire the best person,” he stressed.

Private institutions such as St. Thomas aren’t required to make their student enrollment data public, but according to the Minnesota Private College Council, 11% of the school’s 6,750 total undergraduate population is Black, 12% Latino, 6% Asian, 5% multiracial and less than 1% Native American.

Using team rosters that had individual player headshots (some teams did not have photos available), we found 47 out of 540 student-athletes (about 8%) to be Black: football (28), men’s basketball and men’s track (3), women’s basketball, softball, women’s track and volleyball (2).

“The upcoming athletic season will once again provide exciting competition, competitive progress, new storylines, and opportunities for our Tommies to extend the university’s brand nationwide,” Esten pledged.

Tommies open with a Power 4 test

St. Thomas this weekend welcomes its first Power 4 opponent at Schoenecker Arena Saturday, Sept. 12, when they host Miami in the Diet Coke Classic, and are also slated to play Minnesota Sunday, Sept. 13, at Maturi Pavilion. The Tommies were selected to finish tied for second this season in the Summit League preseason coaches’ poll.

Finally …

The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) last week unveiled its new “Built By Us” tagline. It is built around the conference’s five pillars: Purpose, Legacy, Together, Excellence and Built By Us.

“‘Built By Us’ is a reflection of who we are as a conference,” Commissioner Sonja Stills said in a release.

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses at challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

Copyright © Charles Hallman