MISSOULA — Dickinson State University is returning to the Frontier Conference, a source told MTN Sports on Monday.
The Blue Hawks, of Dickinson, N.D., will join the Frontier in the fall of 2025, according to the source. A formal announcement is expected Tuesday when the Frontier Conference will host a press conference.
According to the Frontier, league commissioner Dr. Scott Crawford "will be making an important announcement about our membership."
Dickinson State previously competed in the Frontier in 2012-13 and 2013-14. A return has long been rumored and discussed, but the move is now imminent as the North Star Athletic Association — of which DSU has been a member since 2014 — continues to shrink in size.
The North Star currently has seven members, but Waldorf, located in Iowa, and Viterbo, in Wisconsin, previously announced they were leaving the conference after this academic year.
Jamestown (N.D.) is returning to the North Star for the 2024-25 season, but the Jimmies are slated to make a jump to NCAA Division II. The 2024-25 academic year will be Jamestown's last in the NAIA.
Dickinson State currently offers the following men's sports: baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field and wrestling. Women's sports offered at Dickinson State include basketball, cross country, golf, softball, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, volleyball and wrestling.
The Frontier Conference currently competes in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf, men's and women's indoor and outdoor track and field, football and women's volleyball.
Dickinson State will compete in the Frontier for all seven of the league's athletic offerings, the source told MTN Sports.
Currently, 10 member schools make up the Frontier Conference: Carroll, Montana Tech, Montana Western, MSU-Northern, Providence and Rocky Mountain compete in multiple sports. Arizona Christian, the College of Idaho, Eastern Oregon and Southern Oregon are affiliate members which compete in football only.
Dickinson State is the only school to be joining the Frontier Conference at this time, but the source indicated to MTN Sports that others from the North Star are looking to join at some point.
