Frontier Conference


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, and Oregon.

History

The Montana Collegiate Conference was established in 1920 by the four smaller schools in the state, with Eastern Montana and Northern Montana joining once they had established athletics. The conference reestablished itself under its current moniker in November 1966, containing the same six schools until 1974. Great Falls joined that year, however would only stay for a decade. Eastern Montana 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 and Utah joining. Great Falls rejoined in 1999. Lewis–Clark State left for the Cascade Collegiate Conference as a full member in 2020.

Member schools

The Frontier Conference has 5 full members with football, 1 full member without football, and 3 football-only affiliate members. Great Falls does not play football. College of Idaho, Eastern Oregon and Southern Oregon are the football-only affiliates.

Current members

  1. Played as an Independent 1984-99. Known as University of Great Falls until 2017.

    Affiliate members

Former members


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bar:1 color:Full from:1920 till:end text:Carroll College
bar:2 color:Full from:1920 till:end text:Montana Tech
bar:3 color:Full from:1920 till:end text:Montana–Western
bar:4 color:Full from:1920 till:end text:Rocky Mountain College
bar:5 color:Full from:1927 till:1978 text:Eastern Montana College
bar:5 color:FullxF from:1978 till:1980
bar:6 color:Full from:1929 till:1972 text:Montana State–Northern
bar:6 color:FullxF from:1972 till:1999
bar:6 color:Full from:1999 till:end
bar:7 color:FullxF from:1974 till:1984 text:Providence
bar:7 color:FullxF from:1999 till:end text:
bar:8 color:FullxF from:1998 till:2020 text:Lewis–Clark State College
bar:9 color:FullxF from:1998 till:2015 text:Westminster College
bar:10 shift: color:AssocF from:2008 till:end text:Eastern Oregon
bar:11 shift: color:Full from:2012 till:2014 text:Dickinson State
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Sports

The Frontier Conference sponsors athletic competition in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men's football, men's and women's indoor and outdoor track and women's volleyball.

National Championships

;Basketball
Montana Western won the NAIA national title in Division I Women's basketball, in 2019.
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.
Southern Oregon won the NAIA national championship in the 2014 season.
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.
;Bowling
College of Great Falls was the 1973 Men's NAIA National Bowling Champion.