2017 Frontier Conference Football Preview: Key Games

Over the last decade, the Frontier Conference has turned into one of the toughest football conferences in the NAIA and heading into the 2017 season, that doesn’t appear likely to change.

Montana Tech, which has won a share of the last two Frontier Conference championships looks poised to make a run at a third straight conference title. Yet, challengers such as Southern Oregon, Eastern Oregon, Carroll College and Montana Western all look formidable, setting the stage for what should be an exciting season.

The conference will once again play a 10-game, unbalanced schedule. With so many conference games, it can make scheduling non-conference opponents difficult, and this season, Frontier teams will play just three non-conference games. The first will be Aug. 26 when Rocky Mountain College pays a visit to Dickinson State University to open the season. The College of Idaho will also play a non-conference game, as the Yotes will play up against Northern Colorado of the Big Sky Conference Sept. 2. On that same night, the UM-Western Bulldogs travel to a true Big Sky Conference contender, in the Weber State Wildcats.

The only other team that will venture out of the Frontier Conference in the regular season is Montana State University-Northern, which will travel to Mayville State (North Dakota) Sept. 30.

While the Frontier football season kicks off officially in just a few weeks, one of the season’s most important games will take place just one week later as Southern Oregon hosts Eastern Oregon Sept. 2.

EOU went 8-2 in the Frontier a season ago and made it all the way to the NAIA semifinals. Southern Oregon, on the other hand, will be looking to bounce back from a 5-5 season and get an early statement win over the Mounties, who were picked as the No. 2 in the preseason coaches poll.

Another big game early will be the Aug. 31 contest between Montana Tech and Carroll, the two Montana teams with the best chance to winning the Frontier in 2017. Quinn McQueary is back as the Orediggers starting quarterback for a third straight year. But the Saints, who are coming off back-to-back losing seasons, are hungry to turn things around, and getting a win over Tech would be a gigantic first step in that process.

Another early game that could be defining for both teams is a Sept. 9 showdown between Western and Eastern Oregon. The Bulldogs have been pushing for a playoff berth the past few seasons, but in order to get over the hump, they need to beat the best the Frontier has to offer, starting with both schools in Oregon.

In terms of tough opponents, no team in the Frontier plays more to open the season than the Mounties, who play Southern Oregon, Western and Montana Tech all within the first month. The final game of that stretch comes Sept. 23 in Butte.

After playing both Carroll College and Eastern Oregon in the first month of the season, the Diggers will battle another tough opponent Oct. 7, as they head to Dillon to take on Western. Then, the very next week (Oct. 14) Tech will meet the Saints again, this time in Helena.

With four of its first six games against conference contenders, the opening stretch of the season will be critical for Montana Tech. If it navigates that, then the Diggers host Northern and Rocky on consecutive Saturday’s, before a critical late-season game with Southern Oregon Nov. 11 that could be for all the marbles.

As far as the Oregon teams are concerned, another huge matchup will take place Oct. 14, when Eastern Oregon hosts SOU. The Mounties will then have a pair of tricky road games at UM-Western (Oct. 21) and at Rocky (Oct. 28) before hosting Carroll Nov. 11 in a game that could be full of playoff implications.

Another critical game on the conference schedule will be Sept. 23 when Carroll visits Southern Oregon. The Saints play each Oregon school once, as well as Montana Tech twice. With three of those four games on the road, the Saints will need to win at least two of those four games to have a shot at the playoffs. From there, Carroll will need to be pretty much perfect. The Saints will play Montana Western Oct. 4 in what could be a toss up. However, the Saints will also need to avoid upsets, like when they play MSU-N Sept. 16 in Havre and Oct. 28 in Helena.

While the Lights don’t figure to be anywhere near the top of the Frontier standings, they are still hoping to make progress and improve on the 1-9 record from a season ago. Northern will get two chances to knock off Carroll, the team it beat in 2016, but two other win possibilities will come against Rocky Mountain, which hosts MSU-N in Billings Sept. 2, before making the trip north to Havre Oct. 14.

In addition to hosting Rocky and Carroll, the Lights will also welcome Montana Tech (Sept. 9) Montana Western (Sept. 23) and Southern Oregon (Nov. 4) into Blue Pony Stadium. Northern will also be looking for its first road win under head coach Aaron Christensen Sept. 30 at Mayville State. Another realistic possibility for Northern winning on the road will come Nov. 11, when the lights will close out their season on the road against College of Idaho.