BILLINGS — Simpson University, located in Redding, Calif., will join the Frontier Conference as an affiliate football-playing member in the fall of 2025.
This upcoming season in 2024 will be Simpson's first football campaign. The Red Hawks will play their inaugural year as an NAIA independent prior to joining the Frontier next year.
"We're excited to have Simpson join the Frontier Conference as a football university. We've been in conversation with them for some time now, and it's exciting to have them join us," Dr. Les P. Cook, chancellor of Montana Tech and Frontier Council of Presidents representative, stated in a press release.
Simpson gives the Frontier Conference 14 football-playing schools. The league's commissioner, Dr. Scott Crawford, said during a press conference on Thursday that Simpson's addition allows the Frontier to divide its football alignment between two divisions, East and West.
Crawford said each division will consist of seven teams, and the winner of each division will earn an automatic berth to the NAIA football playoffs. No formal announcement on divisional alignment has been made.
Simpson's addition comes on the heels of the Frontier adding four other full-time members earlier this month for 2025 — North Star Athletic Association schools Dakota State (S.D.), Mayville State (N.D.), Valley City State (N.D.) and Bellevue University (Neb.). NSAA member Dickinson State was added to the Frontier for 2025 in December.
The Frontier will now consist of full members Carroll College, MSU-Northern, Montana Tech, Montana Western, the University of Providence, and Rocky Mountain College, along with incoming full members Bellevue, Dakota State, Dickinson State, Mayville State and Valley City State. (Providence and Bellevue do not sponsor football.)
Affiliate football-only members will be: Arizona Christian, College of Idaho, Eastern Oregon, Simpson, and Southern Oregon.
Simpson will play six games against Frontier programs during its inaugural campaign in 2024, including the program's first game at College of Idaho on August 31. They will also host Southern Oregon and travel to Carroll, Montana Tech, Eastern Oregon, and Arizona Christian.
