Everything is going according to plan.
Thomas More has been accepted back into the NCAA, this time as a Division II school (with athletic scholarships) and into a conference of “like-minded programs,” said Pres. said Joseph Chillo.
The Saints, coming off an NAIA national championship in women's basketball and a semifinal on the men's side, will move to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference in one year as an NCAA provisional member after the organization was notified Thursday at Crestview Hills College.
As the 14th school in the GMAC (10th in football), Thomas More will join a private school conference that spans four states – Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee with the same number of metropolitan areas (Cleveland-Akron-Canton in Ohio , Nashville, Tenn., Columbus, Ohio and now Cincinnati.
And that's a big part of it. While the NCAA spent months evaluating Thomas More's bid to return after two years in the NAIA after an impressive NCAA Division III (non-scholarship) run that also saw a women's basketball national title, the Saints made their case.
As Chillo said of the Saints' “perfect fit,” it wasn't just because the GMAC is made up of “all private schools, all merit-based institutions,” but something else. And not just something TMU will gain from rejoining the NCAA – and joining the GMAC.
It's also what Thomas More, as the lone Division II program in Greater Cincinnati, can offer, “the conference and the NCAA,” Chillo says.
It's not that often a national championship school knocks on the door, but here it was. And that “excites” GMAC Commissioner Tom Daeger. “It's good for Cincinnati and good for the league. . . We quickly realized they would be perfect for GMAC.”
“The NAIA was a great experience for us,” Chillo said, “but this was too big of an opportunity to pass up.”
As if to say the point, the NAIA's Mid-South Conference, of which TMU has been a strong member, named Saints athletes the winners of two of the conference's top individual awards on Thursday. Senior linebacker Drew Bartolovich became the school's first recipient of MSC's first Character Award. And Saints senior outfielder Emily Mohs won MSC's Female Student-Athlete of the Year award, once again for a TMU athlete.
“As a student-athlete, the NAIA was great for us athletically,” said basketball player Zoie Barth, but the NCAA “both academically and as a brand” is just in a different place.
Thomas More will start playing by NCAA rules this year, AD Terry Connor said, with this recruiting class, though he doesn't expect much of a difference in the NAIA final round. Other than that: “I'm going to attend a lot more meetings.”
Current GMAC members include Ashland University, Cedarville University, University of Findlay, Lake Erie College, Malone University, Ohio Dominican University, Tiffin University, Ursuline College and Walsh University, all in Ohio. Hillsdale College and Northwood University are both located in Michigan. Kentucky Wesleyan College is located in Owensboro while Trevecca Nazarene University is located in Nashville, Tenn.
“We compete in 26 sports,” Daeger says of the GMAC, and Thomas More will field teams in all of them.
“As we invest in our athletics program by adding new sports, full-time coaches and facility renovations and expansions,” said Chillo, “this opportunity to elevate Thomas More Athletics' position with the NCAA's reputation and brand is an important and transformative effort”.
After the final NAIA and Mid-South Conference season next year, TMU will transition to NCAA provisional membership and be eligible for the GMAC championships next year as a full member in the 2024-2025 season, but without the ability to compete for the NCAA Division II championships through the 2025-2026 season.
“It's exciting,” Chillo said of “the opportunity to offer a Division II college experience to our athletes.” Asked about the difference between a Division I and Division II college experience, Chillo said, “Our students are still student-athletes.”
No million dollar NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) offers for them. “The big difference,” Chillo said, “is the time out of class and travel. Our students are not going to miss this moment.”
