WHITEFISH – In a videoconference meeting held Friday, the Frontier Conference Council of Presidents announced plans to go ahead with the fall sports schedule, for the most part.

The plans for all four league sports (football, volleyball, golf and cross country) were all prefaced in the COP release with the words: “At this time,” but noted the league championships for football and golf will be held in the spring of 2021, according to the guidelines set forth Thursday by the National Association of Incollegiate Athletics, which pushed the organization’s fall championships to Spring 2021.

The Frontier Conference Cross Country Championships will be held this fall.

All dates, both fall and spring, may be subject to change under recommendations by local health officials and member institutions. The Frontier Conference schools are Carroll College, Rocky Mountain College, Montana Tech, Montana Western, MSU Northern, College of Idaho, Eastern Oregon, Southern Oregon, and Providence.

Scheduling options for women’s volleyball are still being discussed by the COP and will be released at a later date.

For football, the league will play an eight-game round-robin fall schedule among the five Montana football schools (Carroll, Rocky, Western, Northern and Tech), with practice and contest dates set out by NAIA Guidelines, and will participate in the post-season whenever the NAIA sets their championship dates next spring.

While the Frontier Conference Golf Tournament and NAIA championships will be held in the spring, as tradition dictates, the league will participate in tournaments this fall. As in football, practice and league start dates have been set out by NAIA guidelines.

Cross country meets, including the conference championships, are planned for the fall of 2020. The league will participate in the NAIA National Meet next spring.

These decisions were made with the health and well-being of student-athletes, coaches, administrators and sports communities being placed as a top priority. School administration and safety teams are working hand-in-hand with local community health departments in our various communities along with keeping up to date with the latest Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines that are being sent out from the national office regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The Frontier Conference will continue to closely monitor and adjust as necessary to protect the health and safety of all involved in our athletic programs.