Frontier, Lights eye spring football

The turf install is almost complete at the new Montana State University-Northern football stadium. And when the finishing touches are put on the field, and the goal posts are cemented in, the Lights might even be able to have a practice or two in their new stadium.

For this fall, however, practice is the only thing the Lights will be doing.

As announced last Thursday, the Frontier Conference added football to the list of sports moved to spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Volleyball had already been moved to the spring, and more so, the NAIA had already announced all fall national championships would not be held until the spring of 2021. So, even though the Frontier tried as hard as it could to keep football in the fall, it wasn't to be.

"As disappointing as it is for our student-athletes not to be able to play within their designated seasons, I think the student-athletes know these decisions are being made with their best interests in mind," Frontier Conference Commissioner Kent Paulson said to 406 Sports last week.

Despite the loss of Southern Oregon, Eastern Oregon and College of Idaho to the spring, the Frontier planned to forge ahead, even after the two biggest college football program in Montana, the Montana State Bobcats and Montana Grizzlies saw their 2020 season canceled before training camp ever began. Even after that, the Frontier planned to play an eight-game, Montana-only schedule, but in recent days, county health departments in some of the larger Frontier cities, had a hard time envisioning football being played at the collegiate level this fall.

"It wasn't like we were seeing different things than other conferences but we vowed from the beginning that we weren't going to allow other conferences to dissuade or persuade our decisions," Paulson said to 406 Sports. "We were acting on behalf of the Frontier Conference only."

So, with that said, the Frontier will now look to the spring, and hope that the pandemic has improved enough to get a football season in. Many have expressed skepticism about football being played in Montana post-fall, but Paulson said, no stone ail be left unturned in trying to make that happen.

"We are going to start drafting schedules but now we have a situation where on the front end we could have (poor) weather and the back end we have to find a date for the NAIA Championships and then work backward," Paulson said. "The schedule is going to be determined by certain parameters,. Some of that good weather in Oregon might help us. We might be able to structure a schedule with some games in Montana, but dusting a field off in February is probably not a real possibility in Montana."

Indeed, February in Montana can be downright ugly. It sure can in Havre, but, one thing Northern knows is, they ail have the facility to play in all types of weather, because, whenever football season does come to the Frontier, Northern's new stadium will be ready.