On Tuesday afternoon, the Frontier Conference announced its latest expansion, adding four more schools to begin competition for the 2025-26 school year.
Bellevue University in Nebraska, Dakota State University in South Dakota, along with Mayville State and Valley City State University in North Dakota will be the latest programs to don the Frontier Conference logo at sporting events. The former conference of those schools, the North Star Athletic Association, will no longer exist following next school year.
Carroll College president Dr. John Cech and Frontier Conference commissioner Dr. Scott Crawford spoke to the gravity of the expansion and shared their thoughts on how this affects the landscape of one of the premiere conferences in the NAIA.
“(This announcement marks) the most significant change for the Frontier Conference since its creation in 1934,” Cech said. “With this change, it will be one of the most competitive and powerful athletic conferences in the NAIA.”
“This announcement sends a message of stability throughout the region regarding the future of the NAIA and the way NAIA members operate,” Crawford said. “I hope all those connected to the Frontier Conference will take great pride in this accomplishment.”
Sports that aren’t affiliated with the current Frontier Conference full-time schools such as baseball and softball will be seeing major additions with the new schools coming in. The Frontier Conference hopes to have an eight-team softball league and a six-team baseball league.
What also came out of the presser was the amount of basketball games that will be played as it stands right now. Because there are 11 schools that will be in the Frontier Conference from 2025-26, 22 games will be conference games out of the 28 that one school can schedule.
Crawford confirmed on the call that the Frontier Conference has been engaging in conversation with Bismarck (N.D.) State to potentially join the mix, but those talks are still ongoing as the school recently received NAIA status following a stint in the NJCAA ranks.
This announcement brings the Frontier Conference to 11 schools that will be full-time participants, which includes football. There are still many questions to be answered in the next year about what sports benefit from this move, including wrestling, golf, rodeo, and shooting sports.
