FARGO — Valley City State and Mayville State are discovering a new frontier, literally. The two North Dakota NAIA colleges officially joined the Frontier Conference on Tuesday effective for the 2025-26 school year.
They’ll have one more year with the North Star Athletic Association, which will then dissolve. Valley City and Mayville were joined in membership on Tuesday with North Star programs Dakota State (S.D.) and Bellevue University (Neb.).
All four were admitted unanimously by the Frontier Council of Presidents. It’s not a new league having been formed in 1934 and that history was noted by Carroll College president John Cech, the chair of the Council of Presidents.
“This marks the most significant change for the Frontier since its creation,” Cech said. “With this change, it will be one of the most competitive and powerful athletic conferences in the NAIA.”
Valley City State president Alan LaFave called it a long process, with a lot of details like scheduling and travel having to be worked out. For Bellevue, admission to the Frontier has been in the works for at least six years. Mayville president Brian Van Horn said it begins the next chapter for Comet athletics.
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“This move will allow North Star teams to play together within a geographic region that makes sense,” Van Horn said.
Frontier commissioner Scott Crawford said the league will have a divisional structure to it and left open the possibility of Bismarck State College joining the league. BSC has plans to move from a two-year junior college to a four-year university.
BSC has applied to the NAIA and the Frontier has talked with the Mystics on working through a transition, Crawford said.
The league is mainly Montana based with headquarters in Whitefish, Montana. The schools from that state are Carroll College, Montana State-Northern, Montana Tech, Montana Western, University of Providence and Rocky Mountain College. The conference also has football-affiliated members Arizona Christian, College of Idaho, Eastern Oregon and Southern Oregon.
The College of Idaho won two games in the NAIA playoffs last season before losing in the semifinals 28-21 to Keiser University (Fla.).
Cech said the league will take into account an efficient scheduling model considering the distance of some schools between each other.
Dickinson State, a North Star member, earlier committed to the Frontier. The University of Jamestown has one more year in the NSAA before moving up to Division II Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
Almost doubling Frontier membership could see more benefits, league officials reiterated, of expanding the conference even more. There are 13 football playing schools — and possibly more. No longer does the Frontier have to worry about meeting the minimum number of required sports to reach the playoffs of six schools.
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“Without showing my cards, there are other things in the works that you can expect to hear from us in the near future,” Crawford said. “This sends a message of stability throughout the region regarding the future of NAIA and the way NAIA members operate."
In NAIA, football is the one sport where an automatic qualifier from each division winner reaches the national playoffs. With a greater footprint, Montana Tech chancellor Les Cook took note that it’s nice for football teams not having to play each other twice in a season.
“Expanding the makeup of the conference not only strengthens the conference but strengthens the quality of the competition,” he said.
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