Somehow, we only have one game left in the Frontier Conference regular season, and equally surprising the final game will not affect conference standings no matter what happens.

Here are the standing for the final week:
#11 Carroll College       13-1          22-5
#15 UM Western          11-3           23-4
# 22 Rocky Mountain   10-4           18-8
Providence                     5-9         15-12
Montana Tech               3-11          7-17
MSU Northern               0-14          7-20

Tavia Rooney- photo courtesy of BRIANNA OMARA/BnO Photography
Tavia Rooney- photo courtesy of BRIANNA OMARA/BnO Photography
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Carroll is the regular season champion, and the #1 seed going into the Frontier Conference Tournament.

REMEMBER, we are back under one roof for the Frontier Tournament this year, at the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls, February 26,27,28.

Carroll has been a buzzsaw all year. Their 5 losses have all come to ranked opponents, and their only loss in conference was a 58-51 loss in Billings to the Bears of Rocky.

They have a full stable of outstanding offensive players, but their defense this year is a thing of beauty. They only give up around 51 points a game, they cause turnovers, they don’t give you open shots, and they rebound with the best of them. They will be the #1 seed in the conference tournament, so they will have a first-round bye, and play the lowest seed remaining after day one. I would have to believe they will be a host site for the first and second rounds of the NAIA tournament as well. 64 teams total will be picked, there will be 16 host sites, four teams at each, and the winner moves on to the final site, Sioux City, Iowa.

Western will take on Rocky Saturday. Western has a one-game advantage over the Bears entering the last week of the season, but in the unbalanced schedule this year, Western already has 2 wins over the Bears. So, win on lose Saturday, the Bulldogs will enter the Frontier tournament as the #2 seed, with a first-round bye, and the Bears will head in as the #3 seed and play the Skylights of MSU Northern, the #6 seed, in the first round.

Tech's Tavia Rooney looks for a cutting Dani Urick Thursday night at Kelvin Sampson Court. Photo: Tommy O/Townsquare Media
Tech's Tavia Rooney looks for a cutting Dani Urick at Kelvin Sampson Court. Photo: Tommy O/Townsquare Media
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Tech will play at Northern to wrap up the regular season in a game that would be a good bump in momentum for whoever comes out the victor. A win or loss, either way, won’t affect anything for the tournament but could be the spark that they need to start a fire in Great Falls. As I mentioned Northern knows they will play Rocky in the first round of the tournament, and Tech knows they will play Providence in the 4/5 seed game.

The top 3 teams have really separated themselves as the season has rolled on. A few more wins for any of them will help their case for the National Tournament, but I would be hard-pressed to believe that all 3, Carroll, Western, and Rocky Mountain College will be invited to the dance. Unfortunately, I can’t imagine two Frontier schools hosting, so I assume Carroll will host a pod, and Western and Rocky will be forced to battle on someone else’s floor.

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