BILLINGS, Mont. – In a joint effort, the Montana State University Billings and Rocky Mountain College Athletic Departments announced a new partnership with TDS Telecommunications, with the company taking over as the new sponsor of the Rimrock Rivalry starting in the 2025-26 athletic year.
 
TDS is building an all-fiber, high-speed internet network in Billings that features some of the fastest speeds in the country. Service is now available in many areas and work continues to expand to more neighborhoods. In addition to fast internet, TDS offers a sophisticated TV product as well as phone and mobile services. The company is proud to hire locally, with a workforce that includes alums and current students from both sides of the Rimrock rivalry – including Rocky golfer Kadence Fischer and former MSUB golfer Sarah Schroefel.
 
"I'm extremely proud of the competitiveness and effort our student-athletes displayed throughout the year especially in our Rimrock Rivalry series matchups," said MSUB director of athletics Michael Bazemore. "I think this has been a great addition to both athletic departments and institutions in whole and appreciate Rocky's continued collaboration. Partnering with TDS Fiber is very exciting, and we are thankful for the opportunity to collectively highlight the impact that we have in the community!"
 
The new partnership was announced Monday at the Midland Roundtable Banquet, where the Yellowjackets were also crowned as the winners of the second edition of the season-long, all-sport competition between the Yellowjackets and Battlin' Bears. The rivalry continued to create a level of heightened competition between the two schools in its second season, with the series coming down to the final shared event of the season, where the Yellowjacket men's and women's track & field teams would both outscore the Battlin' Bears to raise the Bruce Parker Trophy, and lock in the department's first Rimrock Rivalry title, winning 465-420.
 
SCORING: The Rimrock Rivalry scoring system is consistent across all sports in which MSUB and Rocky compete head-to-head. Teams who win head-to-head match ups will receive 30 points, with the losing team earning 15 points. If a sport completes a season sweep over its cross-town opponent, they will earn an additional 15 points. The competition also includes a GPA component: the athletic department with the higher cumulative GPA will earn 30 points, with the other department earning 15 points.
 
Link to 2024-25 Final Scoring
 
The Rimrock Rivalry started for the season on the pitch, with the Yellowjacket and Battlin' Bears men's and women's soccer teams competing head-to-head. The MSUB women's soccer team opened the season on Aug. 21 with a 2-1 victory to give MSUB an early lead in the series, but a pair of highly contested matchups between the two men's soccer teams would see the Battlin' Bears emerge victorious in both meetings, giving Rocky a season sweep and regaining the lead.
 
The Grob and Spalding Cup would continue the trend of tightly contested matches, with the MSUB women and Rocky men claiming victories to split the dual. The Yellowjacket men's team full of newcomers battled hard and showed promise over the three days of competition, battling hard until the finals shot but being unable to emerge victorious. Meanwhile, the women would claim an 11-9 victory, coming from behind after trailing narrowly coming into the final day of competition by winning seven of their ten singles matches to claim the Leslie Spalding Cup for the second consecutive season.
 
Rocky would claim a sweep in cross country with both their men's and women's cross country teams defeating the MSUB at the Yellowjacket/Battlin' Bears Open to expand their lead, but MSUB would return the favor in volleyball, with the Yellowjackets winning both contests against Rocky to earn the sweep and prevent the Battlin' Bears from running away with the lead. MSUB would claim a 3-1 victory in the game at Alterowitz Gym on Sept. 17, with both teams contributing to MSUB's Kid's Night and Teddy Bear Toss, helping to provide stuffed animals which were delivered to the pediatrics floor at Intermountain Health. In the following meeting at the Fortin Center, MSUB would emerge from the bear's den with a 3-1 victory and the sweep points, closing Rocky's lead to 240-210.
 
The always competitive matchups between the school's basketball teams would pack both gyms in all four meetings between the teams. An opening matchup between the men's teams on Nov. 13 would see the Battlin' Bears pick up a narrow 89-81 win, but the following week would see the Yellowjacket women collect a dominant 65-47 win in their first matchup. The season deciding games would then take place on back-to-back nights in December, with both the Yellowjacket basketball teams pulling out double-digit wins to split the men's season series, and claim a sweep on the women's side to retake the lead in the season scoring at 330-315.
 
With fall and winter sports in the books, the rivalry would be decided by the track & field teams as MSUB and Rocky battled head-to-head in a pair of home meets, with MSUB looking to close out a victory while Rocky looked to come from behind to clinch a series victory. The first meet would see the MSUB women defeat Rocky by a team score of 193-152, while the Battlin' Bears men would win 203-176 to set up a final meet in which either team could emerge victorious. With the trophy on the line, both Yellowjacket teams would put up clutch performances, defeating Rocky 168-164 on the men's side and earning a sweep on the women's side with a 116-106 victory to clinch a definitive series victory.
 
The Yellowjacket's and Battlin' Bear's student-athletes would finish the year with cumulative GPAs above the national average, with Rocky finishing the year with a 3.31 GPA, narrowly higher than the MSUB's 3.29 cumulative GPA.
 
After another successful season of the Rimrock Rivalry, next season's series will kick off in August with meetings between the women's soccer teams. Be sure to visit www.msubsports.com for more information or click here for Rimrock Rivalry standings and schedules.