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Frontier Conference
Frontier Conference | |
---|---|
Frontier Conference logo | |
Established | 1935 |
Association | NAIA |
Members | 11 (8 full, 3 associate) |
Sports fielded | 16 (men's: 8; women's: 8) |
Region |
Western United States Region I of the NAIA |
Headquarters | Whitefish, Montana |
Commissioner | Kent Paulson |
Website | frontierconference.com |
Locations | |
Frontier Conference locations |
The Frontier Conference is a college athletic conference, founded in 1935 and affiliated with the NAIA. Member institutions are located in the northwestern United States, in the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Utah.
Contents
History
The Montana Collegiate Conference was established in 1920 by the four smaller schools (Billings Poly, Carroll, Montana School of Mines, Western Montana) in the state, with Eastern Montana and Northern Montana joining once they had established athletics. The conference reestablished itself under its current moniker in 1935, containing the same six schools until 1974. Great Falls joined that year, however would only stay for a decade. Eastern Montana (now MSU-Billings) left for the first incarnation of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference in 1988, leaving the Frontier at five members for another decade. The conference opened up outside of Montana for the first time in 1998, with schools from Idaho (Lewis-Clark State) and Utah (Westminster) joining. Great Falls rejoined in 1999.
Member schools
The Frontier Conference has 5 full members with football, 3 full members without football, and 3 football-only affiliate members. Lewis–Clark State College, Great Falls, and Westminster College do not play football. College of Idaho, Eastern Oregon, and Southern Oregon are the football-only affiliates.[1] Dickinson State joined from the defunct Dakota Athletic Conference in 2012, but announced it will leave for the North Star Athletic Association in 2014.[2]
Full members
Institution | Location | Founded | Enrollment | Nickname | Joined |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Carroll College | Helena, Montana | 1909 | 1,502 | Fighting Saints | 1938 |
University of Great Falls | Great Falls, Montana | 1932 | 800 | Argonauts | 1974; 1999 |
Lewis–Clark State College | Lewiston, Idaho | 1893 | 4,500 | Warriors & Lady Warriors |
1998 |
Montana State University–Northern | Havre, Montana | 1929 | 1,207 | Lights & Skylights |
1935 |
Montana Tech of the University of Montana | Butte, Montana | 1889 | 2,694 | Orediggers | 1935 |
University of Montana Western | Dillon, Montana | 1893 | 1,336 | Bulldogs | 1935 |
Rocky Mountain College | Billings, Montana | 1878 | 894 | Battlin' Bears | 1935 |
Westminster College | Salt Lake City, Utah | 1875 | 2,168 | Griffins | 1998 |
- Great Falls — left the Frontier in 1984, and re-joined in 1999.
Affiliate members
Institution | Location | Founded | Enrollment | Nickname | Joined | Sport | Primary Conference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Eastern Oregon University | La Grande, Oregon | 1929 | 3,743 | Mountaineers | 2008 | football | Cascade |
College of Idaho | Caldwell, Idaho | 1891 | 1,010 | Coyotes | 2014 | football | Cascade |
Southern Oregon University | Ashland, Oregon | 1872 | 5,696 | Raiders | 2012 | football | Cascade |
Former members
Institution | Location | Founded | Nickname | Joined | Left | Current Conference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dickinson State University | Dickinson, North Dakota | 1918 | Blue Hawks | 2012 | 2014 | North Star |
Eastern Montana College | Billings, Montana | 1927 | Yellowjackets | 1937 | 1988 | Great Northwest (NCAA D-II) |
- Note
- Eastern Montana College — school name reflects that used during conference membership, now known as Montana State University Billings.
Membership timeline
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DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1935 till:2017
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id:line value:black
id:Full value:rgb(0.7,0.9,0.8) # all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.9,0.8,0.7) # non-football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.9,0.7,0.8) # football-only
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width:15 textcolor:darkblue shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:Full from:1935 till:1972 text:Montana State–Northern (1935-present) bar:1 color:FullxF from:1972 till:1999 bar:1 color:Full from:1999 till:end
bar:2 color:Full from:1935 till:end text:Montana Tech (1935-present)
bar:3 color:Full from:1935 till:end text:Montana–Western (1935-present)
bar:4 color:Full from:1935 till:end text:Rocky Mountain College (1935-present)
bar:5 color:Full from:1937 till:1978 text:Eastern Montana College (1937-1988) bar:5 color:FullxF from:1978 till:1988
bar:6 color:Full from:1938 till:end text:Carroll College (1938-present)
bar:7 color:FullxF from:1974 till:1984 text:Great Falls (1974-1984) bar:7 color:FullxF from:1999 till:end text:(1999-present)
bar:8 shift:(-15) color:FullxF from:1998 till:end text:Lewis–Clark State College (1998-present)
bar:9 color:FullxF from:1998 till:end text:Westminster College (1998-present)
bar:10 shift:(-60) color:AssocF from:2008 till:end text:Eastern Oregon (2008-present)
bar:11 shift:(-90) color:Full from:2012 till:2014 text:Dickinson State (2012-2014)
bar:12 shift:(-105) color:AssocF from:2012 till:end text:Southern Oregon (2012-present)
bar:13 shift:(-120) color:AssocF from:2014 till:end text:College of Idaho (2014-present)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1936
TextData =
fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,25) tabs:(400-center) text:^"Frontier Conference Membership History"
- > If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following three options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space.
Full member (all sports) Full member (non-football) Associate member (football-only) <# </timeline>
Full member (all sports) Full member (non-football) Associate member (football-only)
Sports
The Frontier Conference sponsors athletic competition in men's and women's basketball, men's football, golf, and women's volleyball. Dickinson State University, Montana State University-Northern and University of Great Falls are participants in wrestling (all are national powers). University of Great Falls, College of Idaho, Southern Oregon University, and Westminster College are participants in men's lacrosse.
National Championships
Baseball (The Frontier Conference does not sponsor baseball, but conference member Lewis-Clark State has an outstanding record in the sport)
Lewis-Clark State has won the national title 16 times: 1984-85, 1987-1992 (six straight), 1996, 1999-2000, 2002-03, 2006-08.
They were runners-up in 1976, 1982-83, 1986, 2001, 2013 and 2014.
Basketball
Rocky Mountain won the national title in men's basketball, NAIA Division I, in 2009.
Montana State-Northern won the national title in women's basketball, NAIA Division II, in 1993.
Carroll reached the semi-finals in men's basketball in 2005, as did Lewis-Clark State in women's basketball in 2001.
Football
Carroll has won the NAIA national championship six times: four straight, from 2002-05, also in 2007 and 2010, and has been runner-up twice.
Montana Tech was the national runner-up in 1996.
Wrestling
Montana State-Northern has won six wrestling titles: 1991, 1992, 1998-2000, 2004, and was runner-up in 1990,1993, and 2002.
Montana-Western was co-champion in 1994.
IN 2014, the University of Great Falls was second and Montana State-Northern took third at the NAIA national wrestling championship.
See also
References
External links
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