Some mid-major college basketball teams have gone their entire programs’ history without making the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately for St. Thomas of Minnesota, its season ended Sunday, even with a Summit League championship.
St. Thomas, which recently made a rare transition from Division III to Division I, made a run to the Summit League tournament final on Sunday against Omaha, although Omaha already has locked up a spot in the NCAA tournament with St. Thomas being ineligible for the postseason.
Coach Johnny Tauer led the Tommies to a 24-9 record and second-place regular-season finish in the conference in their fourth season in Division I.
St. Thomas is hoping to hang a banner on Sunday, although it won’t get the chance to play in March Madness.
Here’s why St. Thomas is ineligible for the postseason, per NCAA rules:
Why is St. Thomas ineligible for NCAA tournament?
St. Thomas is ineligible for postseason participation due to its transition from Division III to Division I keeping them out until next season.
St. Thomas, whose first Division I season on a provisional basis was in 2020-21, will be first eligible for postseason participation in 2026. NCAA rules state programs transitioning from Division III to Division I must sit out of the postseason for four seasons before being a full-fledged Division I program.
The NCAA recently reduced the number of postseason-ineligibility years to three years for Division II schools and four years for Division III schools in January and allowed for transitioning teams to go off the new timeline if they meet a certain list of criteria.
When did St. Thomas transition to Division I?
St. Thomas, the largest private university in Minnesota, was granted Division I eligibility by the NCAA in 2020, becoming the first program to rise from Division III to Division I.
St. Thomas was forced to find a new conference in 2019 after the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) dropped St. Thomas, an original member, from the league for being too dominant. The Tommies had helped found the league with six other schools in 1920.
St. Thomas considered other Division III and even Division II opportunities before settling on the idea of being in Division I, with the Summit League making a push for them to join the conference.
At the time of St. Thomas being involuntarily kicked out of its Division III league, with the conference giving it two years to find a new home, the university had won 12 consecutive MIAC titles in a variety of men’s and women’s sports. The school also had double the amount of enrollment (6,200) of the next-largest school in the league at the time.
St. Thomas basketball record
2024-25 record: 24-9 (12-4 Summit League)
St. Thomas finished the 2024-25 season with a 24-9 record and 12-4 mark in conference play, good for second in the final regular-season standings.
In fact, the Tommies actually defeated Omaha, 95-84, in the two Summit League tournament finalists’ last matchup. Omaha defeated St. Thomas, 89-78, in their other outing, though, with the third on Sunday deciding the season series between the two programs that would otherwise be playing for an NCAA tournament berth with a conference championship win.
St. Thomas would be quite the Cinderella story, although it’ll have to wait to reach its first NCAA tournament after this season.