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Frontier Conference Considers Merger with DAC and Beyond

By KFBB News Team

Story Created: Aug 12, 2010 at 8:25 PM MST

Story Updated: Aug 13, 2010 at 5:42 AM MST


With the recent announcement that Dakota State will leave the Dakota Athletic Conference to become an independent; talk of re-alignment within the NAIA has picked up steam.

“Unfortunately the DAC is starting to implode,” says Carroll College Athletic Director, Bruce Parker, “They used to be the DAC-10, and then it was the DAC-8, now it’s the DAC-4 – So I think they’re looking around.”

The DAC has recently approached the Frontier Conference about a possible merger. And while the idea is certainly intriguing to both parties, the prospect of expansion is not without its obstacles.


“The one thing that really concerns me is travel,” said Parker, “If you go out to Mayville State, you’re going almost to Minnesota – across a couple of states to get there, and that’s very expensive.”

Travel is just one of many hold-ups, but conference officials are already thinking of ways to alleviate the problem.

“Just because you grow doesn’t mean that automatically mean it’s going to be more expensive or more miles,” said Frontier Conference Commissioner Kent Paulson, “What it does is create some opportunities for divisional play.”

Paulson brought up the example of Major League Baseball, “When they added more teams, they actually cut down travel; which would also create some opportunities that we could get to certainly look at.”

And the opportunities for Frontier Conference expansion are not solely limited to teams from the DAC. According to Paulson, the Frontier has received expansion overtures from fellow NAIA schools Southern Oregon, Menlo College and Azusa Pacific.


And while nothing is set in stone and no decisions have been made, the Frontier Conference will enter further merger discussions with an open mind and eye for opportunity.

“As we learn more, and as we sit down and talk as a conference; I think this will separate out that there will be ‘no this just isn’t fiscally possible’ and we stay as is,” said Paulson, “or we see something here and its ‘you bet, let’s take all four (DAC teams) and let’s even look westward and talk about some other schools that have contacted us as well over the years.’”

Officials from both conferences will meet in Dickinson, ND on August 25th to discuss further partnership options.

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