(Editor's note: Frontier Conference media release)
WHITEFISH – Rocky Mountain College is the winner of the 2019-2020 Bandy Memorial All-Sports trophy, according to Frontier Conference Commissioner Kent Paulson. This is Rocky Mountain’s second consecutive Bandy Memorial award.
For the 2019-20 season, Rocky finished first with 93.5 points followed by Lewis-Clark State College with 86.5 points and Carroll College with 85.5 points. Montana Western was fourth with 59 points followed by Montana Tech with 58.5 points, MSU-Northern with 47.5 points, University of Providence with 46.5 points, College of Idaho with 17 points, and Southern Oregon and Eastern Oregon with 7.5 points each.
It’s Rocky’s eighth Bandy Award. Carroll College leads the league with 14 Bandy Awards. Montana Western has won six. Lewis-Clark State and Montana Tech have four each and MSU-Northern has two.
In the 2019-20 season, Rocky claimed regular-season conference titles in men and women’s golf and women’s cross country. Lewis-Clark State won conference titles in men's cross country and men’s basketball. Carroll College won the women’s basketball regular-season championship and College of Idaho won the conference title in football.
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, and men's and women's golf. 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 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 and Rocky Mountain College. Two more schools participate in all sports except football: Lewis-Clark State and the University of Providence. College of Idaho, Eastern Oregon University and Southern Oregon University are conference members in football only.
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 earlier. 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.
