St. Thomas football team postseason eligible for first time since joining Division I

For four years, University of St. Thomas football players had to answer questions: What are you playing for? How does it feel? Why do it? Not anymore. The Tommies are postseason eligible for the first time in their Division I era.

"You're playing for something more than just the end of the season, our senior day," said senior linebacker Ryan Severs. "Obviously, we love to honor those guys that have played before us, but now we're playing for something more than that. There's just a different level of angst and juice in our locker room right now and we're excited."

That energy came sooner than originally planned. In January, the NCAA reduced the required number of transitional years. So now, this team, which won a frustrating conference championship three years ago, can dream like everybo