WHITEFISH, Mont., Apr. 29, 2023 – Montana Tech is the winner of the 2022-2023 Frontier Conference Bandy Memorial All-Sports trophy according to conference commissioner Kent Paulson. Montana Tech wins their first Bandy Award since the 1992-93 season and their fifth overall.
For the 2022-23 season, Montana Tech edged Carroll College for first, 130 points to 129.8 points. This is the slimmest margin of victory in the history of the Bandy Award.
Rocky Mountain College finished third with 112 points followed by the University of Providence with 76.8 points, Montana Western, 72.5 points, MSU-Northern 68.3 points, College of Idaho 14.5 points, Southern Oregon seven points and Eastern Oregon with six points.
Carroll College leads the Frontier with 17 Bandy All-Sports trophies, Rocky has won eight followed by Montana Western with six. Former league member Lewis-Clark State has won four and MSU-Northern has won two.
In the 2022-23 season, Montana Tech claimed regular season conference titles in men’s basketball, men and women’s outdoor track and volleyball. Carroll won conference regular season titles in men and women’s cross country, women’s basketball and shared the football title with College of Idaho. Rocky Mountain College won regular season championships in men and women’s golf.
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 and women's basketball, men and women's cross country, women's volleyball, men and women's golf, and men 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.
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, Mont.