The Big North Conference (BNC) is a high school

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams which play competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller Division (sport), divisions, with the best teams competing at successively ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. The conference is affiliated with the

Michigan High School Athletic Association The Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) is a service organization for high school sports in Michigan and is headquartered in East Lansing, Michigan, East Lansing. It is a member of the National Federation of State High School Assoc ...

(MHSAA). The conference contains nine of the largest high schools across

Northern Michigan Northern Michigan (also known as Northern Lower Michigan and colloquially within Michigan as "Up North") is a region of the U.S. state of Michigan. The region, which is distinct from the more northerly Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Upper Peninsul ...

and the

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan—also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. or Yoop—is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula b ...

. Among these schools, four are full-time members, two are non-football members, and three are football-only members.

History

The conference was created in 1997 after the split of Traverse City Senior High School into Central and West high schools. It combined the eight largest schools in Northern Michigan. In 2004, due to decreasing enrollment, Cheboygan and Sault Area left the conference. West Branch Ogemaw Heights joined the conference in 2011, but they left the conference after the 2015-16 school year due to decreasing enrollment as well. In 2021, the league announced the departure of Traverse City Central and Traverse City West high schools' football programs, and those schools becoming associate members of the

Saginaw Valley League The Saginaw Valley High School Association (commonly referred to as the Saginaw Valley League) is a high school sports league formed in 1904 within the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA), located in the Bay, Genesee, Isabella, Lap ...

. However, other sports offered by those schools will continue to participate in the Big North Conference. In 2023, it was announced that three high schools, Escanaba, Marquette, and Sault Area, would be joining the BNC as football-only members.

Member schools

Non-football members Football-only members

Former schools

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:850 height:auto barincrement:30 Period = from:1997 till:2027 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:20 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m bar:1 color:green from:1997 till:end text: Alpena Senior High School (1997–present) bar:2 color:green from:1997 till:end text: Cadillac Senior High School (1997–present) bar:3 color:green from:1997 till:2004 text: Cheboygan Area High School (1997–2004) bar:4 color:powderblue from:2023 till:end text: Escanaba High School (2023–present) bar:5 color:powderblue from:2023 till:end text: Marquette High School (2023–present) bar:6 color:green from:1997 till:end text:

Gaylord High School Gaylord High School (GHS) is a public secondary school in Gaylord, Michigan. It serves grades 9-12 for Gaylord Community Schools. As of the 2024-25 school year, the principal is former GIS assistant principal Sean Byram. Academics The school offe ...

(1997–present) bar:7 color:green from:2011 till:2016 text: Ogemaw Heights High School (2011–2016) bar:8 color:green from:1997 till:end text:

Petoskey High School Petoskey High School is a public, magnet high school located in Petoskey, Michigan. Petoskey High School, a part of the Public Schools of Petoskey school district, offers a complementary mix of academic, athletic and leadership opportunities f ...

(1997–present) bar:9 color:green from:1997 till:2004 text:

Sault Area High School Sault Area High School and Career Center is a public, magnet high school in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. It serves grades 9 to 12. It is a part of Sault Area Public Schools. The current principal is Jeanine Sherman. Demographics The demogra ...

(1997–2004, 2023–present) bar:9 color:powderblue from:2023 till:end text: bar:10 color:green from:1997 till:2021 text:

Traverse City Central High School Traverse City Central High School (also known as Central High School, TC Central, or simply TCC) is a public education, public high school in Traverse City, Michigan. It is one of two comprehensive high schools in the Traverse City Area Public Sc ...

(1997–present) bar:10 color:pink from:2021 till:end text: bar:11 color:green from:1997 till:2021 text: Traverse City West Senior High School (1997–present) bar:11 color:pink from:2021 till:end text: TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(250,30) # tabs:(0-center) text:"Big North Conference Membership History"

Football champions

From 1997 to 1999 the Big North had a A division and a B division. Since 2000, the conference has operated with one division.

Teams in the Final Regular Season Rankings

Conference Records

State Championship Results

Boys Basketball Champions

Conference Records

Girls Basketball Champions

Conference Records

References

{{Big North Conference (Michigan) Michigan high school sports conferences High school sports conferences and leagues in the United States Traverse City Central–Traverse City West Rivalry Sports in Traverse City, Michigan