Big Twelve Conference (Illinois)

The Big Twelve Conference is a high school athletic conference in the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), based in Central Illinois. While the name implies that the conference has twelve schools, there are actually only eleven schools currently active, due to other schools either closing, ending offering varsity athletics, or changing conferences.

The conference was indirectly responsible for the demise of the Capitol Conference in 1983 after voting to remove Springfield High School and add four schools from that conference.

All of the schools in the conference are located in cities on Interstate 74 which runs through central Illinois.

History

The conference origins date back to 1925 with charter schools that included; Bloomington, Champaign, Danville, Stephen Decatur, Lincoln, Jacksonville, Mattoon, Pekin, Peoria Central, Peoria Manual, Springfield, and Urbana. Bloomington left the conference for a period between 1927 and 1932 and Jacksonville left permanently in 1932. Streator joined the league in 1932 and remained until 1958, the same year Pekin, Peoria Central and Peoria Manual departed. In 1983, the conference morphed again with the departure of Springfield High School and the addition of Champaign Centennial, Decatur Eisenhower, Decatur MacArthur, Normal Community, and Rantoul, bringing the total number of teams back to 12.

The league transitioned into a two-division, East-West format with Centennial, Central, Danville, Mattoon, Rantoul and Urbana in the East and Bloomington, Decatur, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Lincoln, and Normal in the West. Lincoln left the conference in 1994, however, Normal Community West entered the league in 1995. Stephen Decatur closed in 1999, bringing membership down to eleven. Rantoul departed in 2004, Mattoon left in 2012 and both Decatur schools, Eisenhower and MacArthur followed suit in 2013. Mattoon joined the Apollo Conference in order to play schools of similar size and Eisenhower and MacArthur joined the Central State Eight Conference Both schools were the final two schools from Decatur that remained in the conference, and the member schools of the CS8 are mostly from the Springfield area.

Starting with the 2014-2015 school year, four Peoria schools joined the Big Twelve, with the departure of the two Decatur schools. The four schools who joined are Manual High School, Peoria High School, Peoria Notre Dame High School, and Richwoods High School.

As of today. Champaign Central, Danville, and Urbana are the only continuous members to have stayed in the conference since its inception.

Member schools

Current members

Former Members

Membership timeline

Beginning in 1925, the Big Twelve Conference competes in 11 boys, 13 girls and 13 coed sports and activities within the IHSA.
DateFormat = yyyy
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Period = from:1925 till:2024
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
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Colors = id:barcolor
id:line value:pink
id:bg value:white
id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football
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id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.78,0.391,0.654) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote)
id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference
id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two
id:OtherC3 value:rgb(0.253,0.63,0.146) # Use this color to denote a team that was a member of the Upstate Illini Conference

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width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s

bar:1 color:Full from:1925 till:1927 text:Bloomington (1925–1927)
bar:1 color:AssocF from:1927 till:1932 text:
bar:1 color:Full from:1932 till:end text: (1932-Present)

bar:2 color:Full from:1925 till:end text:Champaign Central (1925–Present)

bar:3 color:Full from:1925 till:end text:Danville (1925–Present)

bar:4 color:Full from:1925 till:2000 text:Stephen Decatur (1925–2000)
bar:4 color:white from:2000 till:end text:School Closed

bar:5 color:Full from:1925 till:1994 text:Lincoln (1925–1994)
bar:5 color:white from:1994 till:1998 text:Joined the
bar:5 color:white from:1998 till:end text: Central State Eight Conference

bar:6 color:Full from:1925 till:1932 text:Jacksonville (1925–1932)
bar:6 color:white from:1934 till:end text:Joined the Illinois Valley Conference

bar:7 color:Full from:1925 till:2012 text:Mattoon (1925–2012)
bar:7 color:white from:2012 till:2016 text:Joined the
bar:7 color:white from:2016 till:end text:Apollo Conference

bar:8 color:Full from:1925 till:1958 text:Pekin (1925–1958)
bar:8 color:white from:1958 till:1962 text:Joined the
bar:8 color:white from:1962 till:end text: Mid-State 6 Conference

bar:9 color:Full from:1925 till:1958 text:Peoria Central (1925–1958)
bar:9 color:white from:1958 till:1962 text:Joined the
bar:9 color:white from:1962 till:2015 text: Mid-State 6 Conference
bar:9 color:Full from:2015 till:end text:(2015–Present)

bar:10 color:Full from:1925 till:1958 text:Peoria Manual (1925–1958)
bar:10 color:white from:1958 till:1962 text:Joined the
bar:10 color:white from:1962 till:2015 text: Mid-State 6 Conference
bar:10 color:Full from:2015 till:end text:(2015–Present)

bar:11 color:Full from:1925 till:1977 text:Springfield (1925–1983)
bar:11 color:FullxF from:1977 till:1979 text:
bar:11 color:Full from:1979 till:1983 text:
bar:11 color:white from:1983 till:1987 text:Joined the
bar:11 color:white from:1987 till:end text: Mid-State 6 Conference

bar:12 color:Full from:1925 till:end text:Urbana (1925–Present)

bar:13 color:Full from:1932 till:1958 text:Streator (1932–1958)
bar:13 color:white from:1958 till:1962 text:Joined the
bar:13 color:white from:1962 till:end text: North Central Illinois Conference

bar:14 color:Full from:1983 till:end text:Champaign Centennial (1983–Present)

bar:15 color:Full from:1983 till:2013 text:Decatur Eisenhower (1983–2013)
bar:15 color:white from:2013 till:2017 text:Joined the
bar:15 color:white from:2017 till:end text: Central State Eight Conference

bar:16 color:Full from:1983 till:2013 text:Decatur MacArthur (1983–2013)
bar:16 color:white from:2013 till:2017 text:Joined the
bar:16 color:white from:2017 till:end text: Central State Eight Conference

bar:17 color:Full from:1983 till:end text:Normal Community (1983–Present)

bar:18 color:Full from:1983 till:2013 text:Rantoul (1983–2012)
bar:18 color:white from:2012 till:2016 text:Joined the
bar:18 color:white from:2016 till:end text: Corn Belt Conference

bar:19 color:Full from:1995 till:end text:Normal Community West (1995–Present)

bar:20 color:Full from:2015 shift:(-39,-4) till:end text:Peoria Notre Dame (2015–Present)

bar:21 color:Full from:2015 shift:(-35,-4) till:end text:Peoria Richwoods (2015–Present)

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text:^"Big Twelve Membership History"
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References

External links

Illinois High School Association
(IHSA) official website

{{Illinois High School Association

Illinois high school sports conferences
Education in Champaign County, Illinois
Education in Coles County, Illinois
Education in Macon County, Illinois
Education in McLean County, Illinois
Education in Vermilion County, Illinois