Frontier ready for 2025 football expansion

The 2025 Frontier Conference football season is going to be unlike any other. That's because the league is growing by leaps and bounds.

The new Frontier will have many new football members including a chunk of schools from he former North Star Athletic Conference. That group includes Dickinson State,. Which did spend several years in the league a decade ago.

Dakota schools will make up a large portion of the new East Division, which will also include Montana State University-Northern. The East Division will be composed of the Lights, Rocky Mountain College, DSU, Mayville State, Dakota State, Valley City State and perennial powerhouse Montana Tech.

The West Division will be made up of original Frontier members Carroll College, Montana Western, as well as College of Idaho, Southern Oregon, Eastern Oregon and Arizona Christian. Newcomer Simpson University will round out the West Divison.

With the two divisons, the Frontier will now get two automatic bids to the NAIA playoffs, something will be crucial to the league being able to showcase how strong it is each year on a national level.

With the announcement of the new divisons, the Frontier has also released its 2025 conference schedule. Next season the Lights will host Carroll College, travel to Western, host Dickinson State, go to North Idaho, host Eastern Oregon, host Montana Tech, visit Valley City, host RMC, travel to Dickson and host Mayville State and travel to Dakota State.

The new-look Frontier Conference season kicks off Aug. 30.