For much of Thomas More University’s time in Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the university had the College of Mount St. Joseph as a local DIII rival, and nearby rival Northern Kentucky University as a Division II school. And the Saints spent a long time on their own island as part of a conference with only western Pennsylvania schools.
Thomas More will be on an island again as the only NCAA Division II school in a large geographic radius when the university’s sports teams begin playing at that level beginning with the 2023-24 school year.
TMU announced Thursday that move will officially be happening. The school is now a provisional member of Division II and accepted into the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
Beginning now, Thomas More is a provisional member of Division II and will have to follow DII rules while the Saints spend their final year in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
TMU will remain in the Mid-South Conference for the 2022-23 school year. Upon making the move to the GMAC next year, the Saints will be ineligible to play in the NCAA DII Tournament in any sport, but will be allowed to compete for regular-season and tournament championships in their new conference.
“We get to compete for conference championships, regular season awards,” Athletic Director Terry Connor said. “How much that will affect us, I don’t know, but I don’t think it will affect us very much. These kids will get to compete in Division II and compete for conference championships.”
Another key factor, is that unlike the Mid-South Conference, the GMAC only has private schools like Thomas More.
“The more we dove into it, the more that we saw we fit,” Connor said. “We’re all private schools. I think it’s great, especially since we’re the only Division II game in town, in the Cincinnati region. We all know how great the high school sports are around here. That is going to be great for our recruiting purposes. We’ll be able to keep a lot of these great athletes at home.”
TMU will be the 14th full member of the GMAC, which has schools in the Columbus and Cleveland areas, as well as Nashville, Tenn.
“We’ve been keeping an eye on Thomas More for several years,” said GMAC Commissioner Tom Daeger. “With 13 members, it was about finding an additional private member within the geographic footprint that would fit in our league and enhance our brand. With this community, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area, it’s lacking in Division II members. Thomas More is going to be an excellent member to fill that void.”
The Mid-South Conference is primarily schools in Kentucky and Tennessee. During their long stay in NCAA Division III, the Saints were in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference with schools that are all located in or near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The Great Midwest Athletic Conference, which celebrated its 10th anniversary during the 2021-22 school year, is primarily schools in central or northern Ohio. The closest school is Cedarville University, which is 60 miles away east of Dayton. Ohio Dominican is in Columbus. Findlay is 150 miles away in the northwest part of the state.
Other Ohio schools include Ashland, Lake Erie, Malone, Tiffin, Ursuline and Walsh,
Other members include Hillsdale (Mich.), which is near the Ohio-Indiana border; Kentucky Wesleyan from Owensboro, Ky.; and Trevecca Nazarene in Nashville. Northwood University in Midland, Mich., also just became a full member.
Five schools are associate members in men’s lacrosse only: Mercyhurst, Seton Hill, Wheeling, Alderson-Broaddus and Davis & Elkins.
The map of those schools leaves a wide swath of land for Thomas More to have to itself in recruiting for DII. Particularly in Kentucky.
Since Bellarmine University in Louisville moved up to Division I two years ago, the closest DII school in the Bluegrass State is GMAC member Kentucky Wesleyan, which is 200 miles away in Owensboro.
Thomas More was only entering its fourth academic year in the NAIA, which made the decision to move back to the NCAA tougher.
“It was difficult,” said TMU President Joseph Chillo. “We had to do our due diligence. We spent six months to a year before we approached the Great Midwest. The NAIA has been a great experience for our coaches and student-athletes, and for the institution. At the end of the day, as we looked at the opportunity to look at the future, the ability to transfer back to the NCAA with more like-minded institutions, that was too good to pass.
Thomas More won its first NAIA national championship in women’s basketball this spring, and the men’s basketball team lost by one point in the national semifinals.
Women’s basketball head coach Jeff Hans, who won two NCAA DIII titles as well, is ready for the challenge.
“I think it’s really good for the university and really good for our athletic department,” he said. “Any time you can make a transition like this that’s going to help our students, it’s a great thing. We’ll continue to try to get local players because that’s our bread and butter. It helps with attendance and some other things. We’re the only Division II in the area, and that’s important.”
Zoie Barth, a Highlands graduate and centerpiece of the NAIA national championship team who will be a senior this season, agreed.
“I think the transition into Division II is a great move for Thomas More,” she said. “I think the NAIA has been great competition-wise, but the branding of the NCAA, you can’t compare anything to that. The academic side of things, the networking that being in the NCAA will bring. I’m excited to see where the university goes in the next few years.”
Thomas More announced a major comprehensive fundraising campaign in 2021 in support of a five-year strategic plan that includes enhanced athletic facilities for many of the Saints intercollegiate sports teams.
In March of this year, TMU and the Florence Y'alls baseball franchise announced a partnership that resulted in the renaming of the home of the Florence Y'alls to "Thomas More Stadium." As part of the agreement, the stadium also becomes the home of the Thomas More baseball team starting in spring 2023. Additional plans are in place for other facility upgrades.
Connor said the scholarship money needed will be roughly the same, and there are different rules in DII that the school will learn to adjust to. All current student-athletes will remain on their current scholarships.
“Coming from DIII and not offering any scholarships: NAIA, we could offer whatever we wanted, and DII we had to offer a certain amount, and we’re already at that amount,” Connor said. “When we saw that, we said we could do this.”
Connor expects a challenging transition to a higher competition level, but he believes the Saints can compete right away.
“Division III to NAIA was a major jump,” he said. “I couldn’t believe how big a jump it was. And we went to a top-five conference in the NAIA. Division II, I haven’t seen it live yet. We’ve seen film but it’s always hard to tell with that. I think the top tier of Division II will be really good just like the top tier of Division III was. The top tier will be really good and this conference will be really strong. People that I’ve talked to from the conference have said you guys are going to be just fine. We’ll find out in a hurry, though.”
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