(Editor's note: Frontier Conference media release)
WHITEFISH – Carroll College is the winner of the 2020-2021 Bandy Memorial All-Sports trophy, according to Frontier Conference Commissioner Kent Paulson. This is Carroll’s 15th Bandy Award, the most by any school.
For the 2020-21 season, Carroll finished first with 136 points, followed by Rocky Mountain College with 115 points and Montana Tech with 79 points. The University of Providence was fourth with 66 points, followed by Montana Western with 63 points, MSU-Northern with 53 points, College of Idaho with 13 points and Eastern Oregon with 13 points each. Rocky Mountain is second with eight career Bandy Awards, followed by Montana Western with six. Montana Tech and former league member Lewis-Clark State have four each and MSU-Northern has won two.
In the 2020-21 season, Carroll claimed regular-season conference titles in women’s cross country, women’s basketball, men and women’s outdoor track and a co-championship in football. Rocky Mountain won the regular-season men’s cross country and women’s golf titles. Montana Tech won the men’s golf regular-season title, the University of Providence won the regular-season men’s basketball title and the women’s regular-season volleyball championship. College of Idaho and Eastern Oregon shared the football title with Carroll.
The Bandy Award is presented each year to the conference school that has accumulated the most points based on its regular-season league finish in football, men's and women's basketball, men’s and women's cross country, women's volleyball, men's and women's golf, and, added this year, men’s and women’s outdoor track. The conference regular-season champion receives 17 points and the points decrease for each place after first with 12 points for second, 10 points for third, nine points for fourth, eight points for fifth, seven points for sixth, six points for seventh and three points for eighth. If there is a tie in the regular-season standings, the points for the place finishing are added together and divided by the number of teams that tied. An example would be if two teams tied for first they would each receive 14.5 points (17 + 12 divided by 2 = 14.5) while the next-place finisher would be awarded the third-place points.
The conference features five members in all sports: Carroll College, Montana State-Northern, Montana Tech, Montana Western (except golf) and Rocky Mountain College. The University of Providence participates in all sports except football. College of Idaho, Eastern Oregon University and Southern Oregon University are conference members in football only. Southern Oregon opted out this year due to Covid-19.
The Bandy Award was first presented after the 1982-83 season with Western Montana College (now Montana Western) winning the award. The all-sports trophy is named in honor of the first commissioner of the Frontier Conference, George Bandy, his wife Cheryl Ann and their 8-year-old son Michael, whom they had adopted two weeks before the family died tragically in a boating accident in the summer of 1982 when their 14-foot sailboat overturned in high winds on Canyon Ferry Reservoir near Helena.
