In its 34 years of football, Thomas More has never seen a season quite like this one. The Saints have gone 10-0 twice, 11-1 four times, 9-1 a couple of more seasons on the way to an all-time record of 242-119 going into this season.
Then 2025 came along. And after 10 games, the Saints are in a place they’ve never been before – winless at 0-10 – and averaging just 11.4 points a game. And with just one game to play – Saturday — at equally winless Kentucky Wesleyan, also 0-10.
That the game is in Owensboro should be no surprise. The 2025 TMU schedule has had the Saints on the road for seven of their 11 games and even worse, for their first four games – and five of the first six. Having to open at nationally ranked Division I-AA program Southern Illinois didn’t help.
In its nearly 35 years of football now, the fewest wins ever for a TMU team were the two in the COVID-shortened six-game 2020 season. The brightest spot for TMU is senior Luke Iden, from Scott High School and Taylor Mill, who has set the school career record for field goals kicked with 34 now.
Although for an offensively challenged team that has scored a mere 10 touchdowns (nine passing, just one rushing) in its 10 games, having to settle for Iden field goals this season would seem to be a part of the problem.
And as hard as it may be to believe, it took TMU until the 19th game this season to score a rushing TD on a one-yard Davay Hill plunge against Ohio Dominican.
If going on the road makes this game an issue of geography for TMU, history may be on the Saints’ side as TMU trounced Kentucky Wesleyan 47-12 last season and has won the last four straight by a 150-54 scoring margin in this in-state rivalry.
And then there’s this motivation: In the entire history of college football, how often have two teams with identical 0-10 records clashed in the season finale?
We asked Google if that’s ever happened. “Theoretically possible but extremely unlikely that this has ever happened in the history of college football,” Google’s AI Overview answered. “A miniscule chance,” it added. Teams that are 0-10 are rare. That they’d be in the same conference is even more rare. And that they’d play one another in the final game is mathematically quite unlikely, Google’s AI Overview explained.
The winner of this game will get the Bourbon Barrel trophy. The loser might want to drink from it.
Now you know why they call them MID-majors
The first week for the NKU men’s basketball team might fully explain – in two game scores – why the Norse are clearly in a place that college basketball designates “mid-major” land.
Opening at home Monday, NKU clobbered USCAA Small College UC-Clermont 125-66 in a record-tying offensive show at Truist Arena. Then on Saturday, NKU ventured to Knoxville to go head-to-head against the 18th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers of the Southeastern Conference, the nation’s top Division I basketball league, and fell, 95-56.
And while that 39-point loss is not something the NKU program is accustomed to, it’s not close to the record NKU losing margin of 70 in a 117-47 loss to Kentucky Wesleyan in 1990.
The Norse stay on the road in Tennessee Wednesday but go against another mid-major — East Tennessee State at Johnson City at 7 p.m. NKU has an all-time 2-4 record against ETSU.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.