The Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) is a six school athletic conference made up of mid-sized schools in the Northeast Corner of Iowa. The conference dates in 1920, making it one of Iowa's oldest existing athletic conferences.

Members

Departing members highlighted in red. Waverly-Shell Rock will be removed from the NEIC as of June 30, 2023, due to an imbalance of enrollment when compared to the other members. Likely landing spots for the school include the

Iowa Alliance Conference The Iowa Alliance Conference is a high school athletic conference whose members are mostly located in the metropolitan areas of central Iowa, with five of the schools being from the Des Moines Independent Community School District. The conferen ...

or the Mississippi Valley Conference Waverly-Shell Rock will compete as an independent in the 2024-2025 school year. The school attempted to join the

WaMaC Conference The WaMaC conference is a high school athletic conference in Eastern Iowa made up of mid-sized schools. The conference is named for the three rivers that drain in the area (Wa for Wapsipinicon, Ma for Maquoketa, and C for Cedar). WaMaC also par ...

for the 2025-2026 school year, but was denied, leaving the future of the school's athletic competition uncertain. In January 2024, Howard-Winneshiek School District (Crestwood High School) agreed to join the

Upper Iowa Conference The Upper Iowa Conference is a high school athletic conference in Iowa made up of 1A and 2A schools in northeastern Iowa. It is currently a nine team league. It has the current sports: volleyball, boys and girls basketball, golf, cross country, ...

, leaving the NEIC with 4 members in the 2025-2026 school year. 2 weeks after Crestwood High School announced it would leave the NEIC, both New Hampton School District and Allamakee School District (Waukon High School) announced their acceptance into the

. Their admission would also be effective for the 2025-2026 school year. Charles City School District attempted to join the

North Central Conference (Iowa) The North Central Conference (NCC) is a high school athletic league located in north-central Iowa, affiliated with the Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU). Established in Novembe ...

, but was rejected. The school district has asked for state mediation for acceptance into the conference. Decorah Community School District also attempted to join the

but was denied as well.

Invited Members

The following school districts were invited to the NEIC on April 25 for the 2023-24 school year. All schools have since declined invitation. Oelwein and Osage were formerly charter members. Osage left the conference in 1958, Oelwein in 2021

History

The NEIC was founded in 1920 by seven schools in northeastern Iowa. These seven schools were Charles City, Cresco, Decorah, New Hampton, Oelwein, Osage, and Waverly. All of the schools were located in some of the largest cities in Northeastern Iowa and most were located in their respective county seats. Cedar Falls joined the league in or around 1948, pushing membership to eight. By the early-1960s, Osage and Cedar Falls had left the conference to join a more local and a larger conference, respectively. Cresco also merged with other small area schools to become Crestwood High School around this time, while the small Shell Rock district joined Waverly. The membership of the conference stayed at six for a few years until Allamakee School District in Waukon joined the conference. Membership has been the same since at least 1970. As of 2011, all of the schools are either 3A or 2A by classification, Iowa's second and third largest classes. New Hampton has been a 2A school since 2010, and Waukon moved to class 2A in 2012. 2021-22, Oelwein left for the NICL leaving the conference with 6 members

External links

Official site

References

{{Iowa High School Athletic Conferences High school sports in Iowa 1920 establishments in Iowa Sports leagues established in 1920