HELENA, Mont. - The Frontier Conference announced their 2026 schedule Thursday.  The 2026 schedule features the flip-flops of home-away crossover games and divisional games from the 2025 season.

Valley City State will have ten games, five home and five away. The season will kick off on August 27^th when the Vikings head to Marshall, Minnesota to play Southwest Minnesota State. The Ag Bowl will be Thursday, September 3rd when the Dickinson State Blue Hawks come to Lokken Stadium. Homecoming will be on September 19^th when the Vikings will face Eastern Oregon. Home games this season will be September 5^th with Dickinson State, Eastern Oregon on September 19^th, Dakota State on October 17^th, Montana State-Northern on November 7^th, and Montana Tech November 14^th.

The NAIA football regular season schedule begins on Thursday, Aug. 27.  Carroll (Mont.), Frontier West, is set to host Frontier East's MSU-Northern in a non-conference contest on the opening night, while Valley City State (N.D.) travels to Southwest Minnesota State on the same night.

Also on the opening week, six other Frontier football teams are set to play on Aug. 29.  Eastern Oregon hosts College of Idaho in a non-conference contest, while Simpson (Calif.) welcomes Southern Oregon in a non-conference game.  Dakota State (S.D.) hosts Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) and Mayville State (N.D.) travels to Briar Cliff (Iowa).

The non-conference schedule continues Sept. 5 as Arizona Christian opens their season at Fort Lewis (Colo.).  In addition to the team's season openers, Montana Western travels to MSU-Northern, Montana Tech hosts Carroll, and Rocky Mountain (Mont.) travels to College of Idaho.

The Frontier Conference's crossover contests (West vs. East) are set for a two-week span on Sept. 19 and Sept. 26. Those cross-over contests are counted as non-conference.

The six-game divisional matchups (counted as a conference game) begin on Oct. 3.  Montana Tech won the East Division, while College of Idaho captured the West Division.  The Yotes advanced to the national semifinals last December before falling to eventual national runner-up Keiser (Fla.).

Each team will have a bye week during the divisional schedule, with the regular season schedule ending on Nov. 14.

The winners of the East and West Divisions will receive the Frontier Conference's automatic bid for the NAIA Football Championships Series (FCS), which is set for Nov. 21.

Game times will be announced on the school's athletics website later.

View Full 2026 Football Schedule