October 20, 2025
HELENA, Mont. – Montana Tech is the coaches’ preseason favorite to repeat the Frontier Conference Men’s Basketball title for the fifth consecutive year, the conference preseason poll was announced by the conference office Monday morning.
Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams. The Frontier Conference has expanded to 12 full-time institutions this year.
First place is worth 11 points, second place is worth 10 points, third place is worth nine points, and so on to the last place with one point.
The Orediggers collected 11 first place votes and 121 points to earn the top spot of the preseason poll. Montana Tech finished their 2024-25 season with an overall record of 24-7 and 10-5 in the Frontier Conference and qualified for the NAIA National Tournament First Round.
Carroll (Mont.) and Montana Western were knotted for second place in the coaches’ preseason poll. Both teams recorded 89 points, while the Bulldogs picked up the final first place vote.
Providence (Mont.), who advanced to the 2025 Frontier Conference Men’s Basketball Championship game, finished fourth in the poll with 81 points. Dickinson State, who captured last year’s conference title in the North Star Athletic Association, placed fifth with 75 points.
Rocky Mountain (Mont.) was sixth with 73 points, edging Bellevue (Neb.) by two points (71 points). Mayville State (N.D.) finished eighth in the poll with 53 points, followed by Dakota State (S.D.) ninth with 50 points. MSU-Northern was 10
th with 39 points, Valley City State (N.D.) 11
th with 34 points and Bismarck State (N.D.) 12
th with 17 points.
The 2025-26 NAIA Men’s Basketball officially kicks off their season on Thursday.
Each Frontier Conference school will play a total of 22 conference games on their 2025-26 schedule, playing home-and-away contests. They are scheduled to play 11 home league games and 11 road conference contests.
The first conference contests of the season are scheduled for mid-November with traveling partners facing each other.
The top eight teams in the Frontier Conference standings will advance to the postseason tournament, hosted by Montana Tech at Civic Center in Butte. The four-day conference tournament begins with a pair of quarterfinals on Feb. 27 (Friday – 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Mountain Time) and Feb. 28 (Saturday – 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Mountain Time), followed by the semifinals on March 1 (Sunday – 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Mountain Time), and the championship game on March 2 (Monday) at 7:30 p.m. (Mountain Time).
The Frontier Conference will have two automatic bids for the NAIA Men’s Basketball National Tournament, starting with the First and Second Rounds on March 13-14, 2026. The opening round winners advance to the final site at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo., on March 19-24, 2026.
The first automatic berth will be awarded to the regular-season champion. The second berth will be awarded to the Frontier Conference Postseason Tournament Champion. In the event the regular-season champion is the tournament champion, then the second berth will be awarded to the regular-season runner-up.
Below is the complete 2025-26 Frontier Conference Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Preseason Poll:
| 2025-26 Frontier Conference Men’s Basketball Preseason Coaches’ Poll |
| Rank |
School (First Place Votes) |
Total Points |
| 1 |
Montana Tech (11) |
121 |
| T2 |
Carroll (Mont.) |
89 |
| T2 |
Montana Western (1) |
89 |
| 4 |
Providence (Mont.) |
81 |
| 5 |
Dickinson State (N.D.) |
75 |
| 6 |
Rocky Mountain (Mont.) |
73 |
| 7 |
Bellevue (Neb.) |
71 |
| 8 |
Mayville State (N.D.) |
53 |
| 9 |
Dakota State (S.D.) |
50 |
| 10 |
Montana State-Northern |
39 |
| 11 |
Valley City State (N.D.) |
34 |
| 12 |
Bismarck State (N.D.) |
17 |
Don’t forget to download the Frontier Conference app, in partnership with Snap! Mobile. The app is free to download in the
App Store on Apple or
Google Play for Android.
Click here to download the Frontier Conference app.