Central State Eight Conference

The Central State Eight 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 eight schools, there are actually ten schools currently active, due to other schools changing conference affiliations. The conference was established in time for the 1993-1994 school calendar year.

History

The impetus of the conference formation can be traced as far back as 1981-1982, originating from the remnants of the defunct Capitol Conference. At that time, the existing Big Twelve Conference membership of Bloomington, Champaign Central, Danville, Stephen Decatur, Lincoln, Mattoon, Springfield & Urbana voted to drop Springfield and add existing Capitol Conference members Champaign Centennial, Decatur Eisenhower, Decatur MacArthur & Normal Community, as well as Rantoul. As a result, the Capitol Conference dissolved, leaving its remaining members (Jacksonville, Springfield Lanphier, Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin & Springfield Southeast), as well as Big Twelve Conference castoff Springfield, to find new homes.

Jacksonville joined the short-lived Greater Midwestern Conference (along with Chatham Glenwood, Hannibal (Missouri), Macomb & Quincy Notre Dame) for five years, then become an independent. Springfield, Springfield Lanphier & Springfield Southeast joined Pekin, Peoria Bergan, Peoria Central, Peoria Manual, Peoria Richwoods, Peoria Spalding & Peoria Woodruff in the Mid-State # Conference (where # indicated the number of active members at that given time). Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin competed as an independent. With these five schools desiring to re-establish local rivalries and reduce travel expenses, the Central State Eight Conference came to fruition.

Original membership included Chatham Glenwood, Jacksonville, Lincoln (from the Big Twelve Conference), Springfield, Springfield Lanphier, Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin, Springfield Southeast & Taylorville (from the Apollo Conference). Since its inception, Taylorville (following 2013-2014, returning to the Apollo Conference) has departed and Rochester (from the Sangamo Conference, starting 2010-2011), Decatur Eisenhower (from the Big Twelve Conference, starting 2014-2015) & Decatur MacArthur (from the Big Twelve Conference, starting 2014-2015) have entered. Lincoln has departed for the Apollo Conference following the 2016-2017 school year, with Normal University joining at that beginning of the 2017-2018 school year from the Corn Belt Conference. Lincoln High School is scheduled to rejoin the conference in the 2023-2024 school year. Quincy Notre Dame is expected to join the conference in 2024 for football only. The conference will then be split up into East and West divisions.

The conference is centered on high schools in the Springfield/Sangamon County (Illinois) area.

Member Schools

**Lincoln rejoins 2023
*% - Multiplier

Associate member

**Notre Dame joins 2024 football only
*% - Multiplier

Former Member High Schools

Membership timeline

Beginning in 1993, the Central State Eight Conference competes in 11 boys, 13 girls and 13 coed sports and activities within the IHSA.
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Period = from:1993 till:2024
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#
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
id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only
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

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

bar:1 color:Full from:1993 till:end text:Chatham Glenwood (1993–Present)

bar:2 color:Full from:1993 till:end text:Jacksonville (1993–Present)

bar:3 color:Full from:1993 till:2017 text:Lincoln (1993–2017)
bar:3 color:white from:2017 till:2023 text:Apollo Conference
bar:3 color:Full from:2023 till:end text:(2023-Present)

bar:4 color:Full from:1993 till:end text:Springfield (1993–Present)

bar:5 color:Full from:1993 till:end text:Springfield Lanphier (1993–Present)

bar:6 color:Full from:1993 till:end text:Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin (1993–Present)

bar:7 color:Full from:1993 till:end text:Springfield Southeast (1993–Present)

bar:8 color:Full from:1993 till:2014 text:Taylorville (1993–2014)
bar:8 color:white from:2014 till:end text:Apollo Conference

bar:9 color:Full from:2010 till:end text:Rochester (2010–Present)

bar:10 color:Full from:2014 till:end text:Decatur Eisenhower (2014-Present)

bar:11 color:Full from:2014 till:end text:Decatur MacAuthur (2014-Present)

bar:12 color:Full from:2017 till:end text:Normal University (2017–Present)

bar:13 color:white from:2021 till:end text: Quincy Notre Dame
bar:13 color:AssocF from:2024 till:end text:

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:1993
TextData =

fontsize:L

textcolor:black

pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center)

text:^"Central State Eight Membership History"
#> If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#

References

External links

Illinois High School Association
(IHSA) official website

{{Illinois High School Association

Illinois high school sports conferences
Education in Christian County, Illinois
Education in Logan County, Illinois
Education in Macon County, Illinois
Education in McLean County, Illinois
Education in Morgan County, Illinois
Education in Sangamon County, Illinois