Rolin, Lights continue to prepare for fall

It seems that, as the college football season approaches, things are changing and changing quickly.

And that is still the case for the NAIA and Frontier Conference football.

It was less than two months ago that the NAIA announced firm dates for the beginning of the Frontier football season, saying that, practices could not begin before Aug. 14 and games could not be played until Sept. 12. The NAIA also limited the upcoming season to a maximum of nine games.

Several weeks later, the Frontier Conference voted to have an eight-game season with seven of those games being counted as league games.

At that time, it seemed like the plan was a solid one, and, in conjunction, coronavirus cases in Montana had literally gone down to zero on some days, and averaged less than 20.

Of course, COVID-19 has changed yet again. A massive surge in late June, and early July, including Montana averaging more than 90 cases per day for a seven-day period last week, has affected football plans again - and in particular, the Frontier schedule.

Last week, the Cascade Conference announced it was suspending its fall sports season, and while the CCC doesn't offer football, three CCC members, Southern Oregon, Eastern Oregon and the College of Idaho, play football in the Frontier, and those three schools all announced last week that they would suspend football season even if the Montana schools in the Frontier go ahead with a fall season.

"It is at this time, we have made the difficult decision to transition all of our fall sports to the spring season," said C of I athletic director Reagan Rossi. "While we are still working through decisions with the Frontier Conference presidents and the NAIA, we felt it was important for our decision to be unified for all of our fall sports and to communicate as such in a timely manner. We will work with our CCC Commissioner to build our spring schedules and will await more direction from the Frontier Conference and the NAIA before determining a football schedule. We value our partnership with the Frontier Conference and are hopeful their presidents and members understand our decision."

The decision, which included SOU and EOU as well, forces the Frontier to re-tool its upcoming football schedule, which, Frontier Commissioner Kent Paulson verified was being looked at earlier this week.

So, with that in mind, it does seem like the league is planning on going forward with an all-Montana Frontier schedule.

"We're prepared to play in the fall," Northern head coach Andrew Rolin said. "We understand that can change, and we're taking it one day at time. But we've been operating and preparing for fall football, and honestly, I couldn't be more excited about it. We've had kids here working out this summer, and we'll have our whole team here by the beginning of August to begin conditioning before fall camp starts, so that's the way we're operating, we are planning on, and hoping to play football this fall."

If Northern was set to play the three out-of-state schools in three of its first five games, including its home-opener against Southern Oregon Sept. 26. That home-opener was also hoping to be the unveiling of the Lights' brand new on-campus stadium, which is currently being built on the west end of Northern's campus.

But with the SOU game and road games at C of I Sept. 19 and EOU on Oct. 17 now out, if the Frontier decides, and the NAIA allows, for teams to play this fall, the schedule will have to re-worked and would likely be an eight-game schedule with multiple teams playing each other twice, and still at least one game counting as a non-conference affair.

"I really feel for the three out-of-state teams in our league," Rolin said. "College of Idaho is the defending Frontier champion, so if they don't play this fall, that is really tough and I really feel for them. But at the same time, I guess selfishly, if that gives us the opportunity to play a fall schedule in Montana only, I feel that's what would be best for us, for our kids and for our state, at this time. That's just my opinion and, again, I'm being selfish, because that would mean I would get to coach football this fall, and that's what we all want ... to compete this fall."

Of course, much of that isn't just up to Frontier officials and school presidents. The state of Montana, local health officials and the NAIA will also have a say in if a fall Frontier football season can and will proceed. In fact, the NAIA already has a safeguard in place that says, if less than 50 percent of participating schools have a season, then there will be no official season, or postseason. The same safeguard is in place for all NAIA fall sports, which include volleyball, cross country and soccer. The Great Plains Athletic Conference announced Monday that the league is planning on moving forward with its fall sports season, the first such NAIA conference to announce a move forward. The Cascade is the first league to announce an official cancellation in the NAIA, however, many NCAA Division II conference have already done the same.

As for FCS football, and Big Sky Conference fall sports, things are still very much up in the air. Tuesday, Montana State Athletic Director Leon Costello told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle: "We are currently monitoring the FCS landscape to see if there will be any changes to the FCS Playoff schedule and the impacts that will have on our Big Sky schedule, if any. The timeline for these decisions is quickly approaching."

So far, five FCS conferences have already announced the postponement, move or cancellation of fall sports, including football. The most popular choice seems to be moving the football season to February through May, though logistically, that won't be easy for the Bobcats, or the Montana Grizzlies, neither of whom possess an indoor practice facility.

Some FCS teams are talking about creating an independent schedule for the fall, but Costello also weighed in on what his focus is for the Bobcats.

"My primary focus is on our student-athletes and coaches having a chance to compete for conference and national championships," he told the Chronicle.

The Big Sky commission told the Chronicle Monday that they are still targeting the end of July to announce a final decision on the fate of fall sports in the conference. The league is conducting its Big Sky Football Kickoff virtually later this week.

Stadium Gives Hope

Back at Northern, just like plans are ongoing for a fall football season, the new on-campus stadium is also coming together.

In recent weeks, the stadium has seen its main grandstand be put together, as well as plenty of other infrastructure being installed, including the scoreboard and the tailgating area, among other projects.

The field turf is also set to be installed at the beginning of August, and that will really bring things together.

"We're as excited as we can be," Rolin said. "With everything we're all going through right now, I see that stadium coming together as beacon of hope. I mean, I know its just a place to play football, but it also represents us still moving forward. It represents progress in the face of adversity, it represents that there's hope that football will be coming back, that our lives will move forward. It just shows that we're still moving forward.

"So it's been fun to watch it come together every day," Rolin continued. "It's a dream come true, it's a reality that is coming together, thanks to the hard work and geroisity of so many people. It's just so exciting to see it come together every day."