Frontier announces fall sports schedule changes

There was little doubt changes were coming to the Frontier Conference this fall. Now though, those changes are official.

After a Frontier Conference president's meeting Thursday afternoon, the league approved its schedules for the 2020 football and volleyball seasons. The re-scheduling of both sports were necessary due to the NAIA's plan to return to play this fall amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which included practices for both sports starting no sooner than Aug. 15 and games starting no sooner than Sept. 5.

For football, there were two possible schedules proposed, an eight-game schedule with each school playing four games at home and four away, or a nine-game schedule, which, for 2020 is the maximum amount of games allowed per the NAIA plan.

And, according to Montana State University-Northern athletic Director Christian Oberquell, the Lights, and the rest of the league will play eight games this season, with the season-openers set for Sept, 12, which is the first date NAIA schools can begin playing football. The Lights visit Montana Tech that day, and play their first two games on the road, before playing their first of four home games this season on Sept. 26 against Southern Oregon. All Frontier teams will have a bye week Oct. 1o, and, the final date for the regular season will now be Nov. 7. The final game for Northern will be at home against Montana Tech.

"There were two options, and the presidents voted for the eight-game schedule," Oberquell said. "That was the biggest change."

As for volleyball, there were also two proposals, and the league voted on a 20-game conference schedules, which starts Sept. 14. The schedule also has a new twist, in which each team plays each other four times, with two of the matches being on back-to-back days. So, all season, Frontier matches will be played Friday night's at 6 p.m., with a rematch Saturday's at 2 p.m., unless there is a conflict with the host school's home football game.

The volleyball season for the NAIA is allowed to begin one week earlier than conference play, and that will allow each school to play one preseason weekend. Under normal circumstances, most schedules for volleyball include at least three pre-conference weekends.

Also, the time changes, and the fact that teams will play each other on back-to-back nights, will certainly cut down on travel, and time, while another big step was taken when the league also passed the proposal to not play a postseason volleyball tournament this year.

"They voted not to have a conference tournament this year," Oberquell said. "So, our regular season champion will get the automatic bid to the national tournament."

The Skylights open the new Frontier season with Sept. 11-12 matches against Montana Western in the Armory Gymnasium.

Meanwhile, the other two fall sports that Northern participates in, golf and cross country, will remain pretty much business as usual, with the exception of later start dates but, overall, this fall will look decidedly different due to COVID-19.

"It is different," Oberquell said. "But the important thing is having a fall season and being able to do it safely. I think everybody is on the same page about that, and I think the folks in our conference did a really good job of coming up with schedules that meet those standards."

For much more on Northern's re-vamped football and volleyball schedules, see next week's Havre Daily News sports section.