March 12, 2026
HELENA, Mont. – Four Frontier schools will be playing in the 2026 NAIA Men’s Basketball National Championship First and Second Rounds this weekend. There are three Frontier Conference teams listed in the same quadrant, while one other conference member is listed in another quadrant.
Rocky Mountain (Mont.), winner of 18 straight games before entering this weekend, will host their First and Second Round at Fortin Education Center in Billings. RMC will represent the Frontier Conference as the regular season champion.
The Battlin’ Bears (28-3 overall record) will be the No. 2 seed and will face No. 15 seed Simpson (Calif.) (16-11 overall record) in the Liston quadrant at 7 p.m. (Mountain Time) Friday.
The other pairings in the Billings’ pod include No. 7 seed Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) (24-7 overall record) taking on No. 10 seed The Master’s (Calif.) (21-9 overall record Friday evening at 5 p.m. (MT). Friday’s winners move on to Saturday’s game at 4 p.m. (MT).
Two other Frontier Conference teams are listed in the Liston quadrant. Bellevue (Neb.) (22-7 overall record) will represent Frontier Conference’s second automatic bid as the regular season runner-up (Rocky Mountain won postseason tournament title).
The Bruins will travel to Huntington, Ind., to play No. 3 Huntington (Ind.) (22-8 overall record) in the First Round Friday at 6 p.m. (Eastern Time). The winner will move on to Saturday’s game against Friday’s winner between No. 6 seed Graceland (Iowa) (25-6 overall record) and No. 11 seed Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) (18-11 overall record) at 6 p.m. (ET).
Also in the Liston quadrant, Montana Tech (22-8 overall record) received an at-large invitation to the national tournament. The Orediggers head to Bartlesville, Okla., as the No. 8 seed and will take on No. 9 seed Oklahoma City (21-10 overall record) in the First Round Friday at 8 p.m. (Central Time).
Host-team No. 1 seed Oklahoma Wesleyan (28-3 overall record) plays No. 16 Southern University at New Orleans (17-13 overall record) at 6 p.m. (CT). The winners of those two games will meet on Saturday evening.
The final Frontier Conference team that will play in the national tournament is Carroll (Mont.) (20-9 overall record), placed in the Naismith quadrant. The Fighting Saints play No. 7 seed Wayland Baptist (Texas) (23-7 overall record) in Chandler, Ariz., hosted by No. 2 seed Arizona Christian (22-7 overall record), Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. (Pacific Time).
ACU plays No. 15 Corban (Ore.) (17-14 overall record) Friday evening, with the winners advancing to Saturday at 5 p.m. (PT).
The winners after this weekend’s First and Second Rounds move on to the final site at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo., on March 19-24.
All games will be live broadcast through NAIA’s Urban Edge Network.