Former UST football player and big UND fan. I don't know Caruso's reasons for not throwing his hat in the last time this gig was open, but I can probably weigh-in on why he probably won't throw his hat in the ring this time either:
a) Caruso is most likely making comparable money to Bubba.
b) Caruso has a nice house on Summit Ave, walks on water at UST, his children haven't had to move around like most coaches' kids (and have been with the same school system and friends their whole academic lives), and his wife just got done going through chemotherapy. I don't think he's looking to uproot and start fresh in a new community where his feet will be held to the fire immediately.
c) UST doesn't have an indoor practice facility...yet, but their facilities (for football) are every bit as nice as UND's in every other respect, and probably much better in some ways with their new Anderson Athletic and Recreation Center.
d) Caruso has spent years developing a recruiting pipeline with the Chicago Catholic League and really doesn't have to go out of the metro or Wisconsin to field the rest of his team. He'd basically be starting over developing a recruiting strategy to field a FCS program.
e) UST/SJU put 37,000 fans in Target Field. That's not exactly like playing at Washington, but it's definitely a big time atmosphere/feel with plenty of media attention.
f) UST just hired the #2 in Penn State's Athletic Dept. as their AD/VP so I think they have some big plans athletically/academically. UST added a law school 15 years ago, are adding a school of nursing, and are exploring a med school. Considering the Goofs are the only full-fledged D1 (as in every sport, not just hockey) in the state of Minnesota (the 22nd most populated state in the union) and UST has the same endowment as NDSU and UND combined, I foresee a potential jump to D1 in the next 5 to 10 years. They've had committees on this in the past and know they aren't a good fit academically for D2. I know UST has always envisioned themselves ascending to the same vein as larger urban Catholic schools (Marquette, Villanova, Dayton, Georgetown, Boston College) and the Summit League is desperate for men's soccer, baseball and track and field programs. UST fields all of those sports, plus all the requisite women's sports needed, and has comparable if not better facilities than many of the schools in the Summit already. Depending on what UND is looking to flagship, I am guessing they could find a conference home for football rather easy, whether they'd look at non-scholarship Patriot League or if the MVFC is looking to expand their footprint to the Twin Cities metro, I think they've got the resources to be a good fit for either. Rumblings are UST will be playing SJU in the new 20,000 seat Allianz Stadium a mile from campus in the near future and that would most likely be a good short-term solution until they can reconfigure their facilities for FCS D1. As far as hockey is concerned, my guess is the WCHA would be willing to take on anyone provided they could find an adequate facility. IF, and that's a big IF, any of this happens, I would imagine Caruso would be a part of that. UST already has the athletes to be somewhat competitive (at least not embarrassing) through a transition, and with having the built in advantage of a homogeneous campus in the heart of the Twin Cities, that feels like it's own world, I think they'd be able to recruit well.
tl/dr: I just don't think UND has the juice to get Caruso to walk away from a pretty cushy life at UST. He's had his opportunity to pursue the USD and UND job before and didn't.
