Kent Paulson Part 1: Things change, but the Frontier remains among the NAIA's elite

Like so many in his position, Frontier Conference Commissioner Kent Paulson had to make some tough decisions this last month, because of the growing COVID-19 pandemic. And those decisions are still impacting the NAIA and Frontier landscapes as we transition from spring to summer.

And while the coronavirus has stunned the college sports landscape, basically grinding it to a screeching halt, Paulson has remained optimistic about the present, and the future as it relates to the Frontier.

And that's because, right now, the Frontier is in a very good place.

"I'm an eternal optimist," Paulson said last week. "And I'm very proud of where we are as a conference. Things continue to change, and we continue to adapt to those changes, but our true mission remains the same. We're committed to making our league the best experience it can possibly be for our student-athletes and our coaches. No matter what changes we go through, that goal doesn't change."

And Paulson has been guiding the Frontier through plenty of changes. While some of those changes have been big ones, the Frontier has been, and continues to be one of the best conferences in all of NAIA sports.

Of course, changes to the league, and the NAIA continue, including Lewis-Clark State leaving the league this spring to return to full-time status in the Cascade Conference. LC State was able to rejoin the Cascade for all sports after the NAIA did away with its Division I and Division II, so now, there is only Division I. LC had needed the Frontier for more than two decades because of its Division I status, which, the school needed for its highly-successful baseball program. The Cascade had always been Division II, which did not sponsor baseball.

Now however, LC State is gone from the Frontier, leaving the league with just its six Montana schools, as well as its three associate members for football.

"With the exception of football, we're back to an all-Montana conference," Paulson said. "And while six teams isn't ideal, the only sport that it will affect with its NAIA status is men's and women's golf, because only five teams in the Frontier now offer golf. Cross country would have been in that boat, but Montana Tech has added cross country, so the league will still have six participating schools in that sport.

"Obviously, you like it better when the numbers are going up, and not down," Paulson continued. "There was a time when we had nine schools with Dickinson State, and we were very close to having 10, because Jamestown strongly considered joining the conference. Now, it's a different Frontier, because you have Westminster and Dickinson State, which left, and Jamestown never did join, and now LC State has left. And all of those schools had their reasons for doing so. And so, we continue to adjust. We continue to adapt. And we will always continue to look at what we can do to make our league better, make our league stronger. But in the short term, we still feel very good about our conference, with our six flagship schools in Montana."

One of the biggest ways Paulson feels his Frontier could become even better is, if an original member decided to come back. Formerly known as Eastern Montana College, now MSU-Billings, the Yellowjackets were an original member of the then all-Montana Frontier. However, they eventually made the move to NCAA Division II, and have been a member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference for more than three decades. That conference is a sprawling league that includes the University of Alaska, among other far-away schools, and it hasn't always been easy financially for MSU-B.

"It's no secret we would love for MSU-B to rejoin the Frontier at some point," Paulson said. "We've presented to them information and great analytics on why it would be good for them to be back in the Frontier. We've given them a lot to think about.

"So, they know we want them," Paulson continued. "But ultimately, that will be a decision they have to want to make. If they ever do, we'll be excited to have them back in our league. They would make our league even better than it already is."

For now, MSU-B, however, isn't joining the Frontier, so Paulson will march forward with the charter schools in MSU-Northern, Montana Western, Montana Tech, Carroll College, the University of Providence and Rocky Mountain College, as well as the three associate members in football from outside of Montana.

Of course, LC State did not compete in football, so the Warriors departure from the league doesn't affect football (see more next week on Frontier football), and it will shorten travel for volleyball and basketball, but for those sports, it does have a huge impact on scheduling. The Frontier's two schools that participate in wrestling, MSU-N and UP, do so in the Cascade Collegiate Conference.

"We just finished and approved our conference schedules for volleyball and basketball for next year," Paulson said. "Things are going to change in the sense that, each school will have to find 17 non-conference games in basketball, instead of 15 to get to that 32-game threshold. Because now, we will have a 15-game conference schedule, with everybody still playing each other three times."

And while schools will have to search for more out-of-conference games in basketball, Paulson does see an advantage to it, thanks to the NAIA's decision to merge Division I and Division II together.

"Because the men's and women's basketball tournaments are going to more of a March Madness format, with 64 teams, I think the strength of schedule you always hear about is going to become so much more important at our level. And because of that, I think a lot of really good teams are going to look at our league and want to come here and play more of those non-conference games, because they know how good our league is, and they know they need to play teams like ours in order to build up their tournament resumes. So, while our schools are going to have to search for more non-conference games, at the end of the day, that strength of schedule so many schools are going to be looking for, that will help our schools in their out-of-conference scheduling."

Indeed. Other leagues do recognize how good the Frontier is, and so does Paulson.

"Just look at this past winter," he noted. "We had eight teams between men's and women's basketball make the national tournament. Five women's teams again. We've had teams make deep runs in those tournaments, too, including obviously Western winning a national championship last year. We've had good success at that level in volleyball, too, so I think, around the NAIA, it's well-known just how strong our league is, and while we're going to be down a school this coming year, the strength of our league overall, in sports across the board, I don't believe that's going to change.

"And I think more good things are coming our way," Paulson continued. "We have great, hard-working coaches, and hard-working, very smart AD's in our league. We have a lot of things we know we can do to continue to grow our conference, and continue to make what I believe is the best conference in the NAIA. So I'm excited. I'm excited about where we are, and I'm excited for the future."

Editor's Note: This story is part one of a two-part interview with Frontier Commissioner Paulson. Tune in next week to hear Paulson discuss his thoughts on Frontier Conference football, MSU-Northern's new stadium, and the effects of COVID-19 moving forward.