Eastern Oregon, MSU-Northern Early Frontrunners In Frontier

With all of the recent Montana Grizzly and high school football going on, the NAIA's Frontier Conference has flown somewhat under the radar.

With two weeks of conference action in the books, here's where everybody stands:

1. Eastern Oregon (2-0)
2. MSU-Northern (2-0)
3. Rocky Mountain (1-1, 1-2 overall)
4. Carroll College (1-1)
5. Montana Tech (0-2, 1-2 overall)
6. UM-Western (0-2)

Immediately, a few things jump out to me.

For the first time in a long time, Carroll College is not in first place. That's thanks to the efforts of Eastern Oregon, who shocked the Saints in Helena last week 41-33. Carroll handled Rocky Mountain pretty easily the week before, though, so the purple and gold are still sitting pretty.

The Mountaineers of La Grande, OR are the only team currently outside the state of Montana. But they have impressed with the aforementioned win over Carroll, and a Week 1 victory against Montana Tech.

Speaking of Tech, they and Rocky were the only teams to schedule non-conference games this year. Both teams won, as Tech survived a wild double-overtime thriller with Southern Oregon, while the Battlin' Bears upset top-10 Dickinson State.

Finally, after a string of successful campaigns in the middle of the previous decade, the MSU-Northern Lights have fallen on tough times recently. However, the Lights have started the season strong at 2-0, with wins over Western and Tech.

History shows us that despite being the toughest conference in the nation, the Frontier usually receives just one postseason bid, which makes the conference championship vital. All I can say is, game on!