The South Central Conference is a high school athletic conference in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. Originally founded in 1926, it disbanded in 1941 only to reconstitute eleven years later. All member schools of the South Central Conference are affiliated with the

Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) is the regulatory body for all high school sports in Wisconsin. Its history dates to 1895, making it the earliest continually existing high school athletic organization in the country. ...

History

1926–1941

The South Central Conference was formed in 1926 by seven medium-sized high schools in south central Wisconsin: Baraboo,

Portage Portage or portaging ( CA: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a '' ...

, Reedsburg, Richland Center,

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

, Tomah and Viroqua. Logan High School in

La Crosse La Crosse ( ) is a city in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's population was 52,680 as of the 20 ...

joined two years later, and Wisconsin Dells joined in 1939. Two years later, the conference disbanded and most of its members went on to form two new conferences. Baraboo, Portage, Reedsburg, Richland Center and Wisconsin Dells went on to form half of the new Southern Ten Conference (along with former Southern Six members Edgerton, Fort Atkinson,

Monroe Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...

, Stoughton and Wisconsin High). Sparta, Tomah and Viroqua joined with Mauston and Westby to form the new West Central Conference. Sparta, Tomah and Viroqua were also concurrently members of the Gateway Conference along with La Crosse Logan during this time period.

1952–1966

In 1952, most of the schools that were part of the original incarnation of the South Central Conference joined together and reformed the conference. Baraboo, Portage, Reedsburg, Richland Center and Wisconsin Dells all rejoined from the Southern Ten Conference (with the other five schools forming the nucleus of the new Badger Conference). Sparta, Tomah and Viroqua rejoined from the West Central Conference, along with newcomers Mauston and Nekoosa. In 1963, the conference added two schools to bring membership to twelve: Black River Falls from the Mississippi Valley Conference and Sauk Prairie from the Tri-County League. The conference also subdivided into Northern and Southern sections, an alignment that would last for three seasons:

1966–2001

Membership of the South Central Conference underwent a few changes after the initial reformation and expansion period. Nekoosa left the conference in 1966 to join the short-lived Vacationland Conference, Viroqua joined the Southwest Wisconsin Activities League in 1969 and Richland Center joined the SWAL two years later. They were replaced by Adams-Friendship, who were left without a conference after the Vacationland disbanded in 1970. After entering the league together fourteen years earlier, Black River Falls and Sauk Prairie exited the South Central in 1977 to join the Coulee Conference and Badger Conference, respectively. Nekoosa rejoined the South Central Conference in 1982, after a four-year stint in the Cloverbelt Conference. Seven years later, Sparta and Tomah left to join with the larger La Crosse-area schools to form the new Mississippi Valley Conference. Membership through the 1990s remained consistent at seven schools, but more significant changes were coming at the turn of the century.

2001–present

As the South Central Conference approached the fiftieth anniversary of its reformation, three of its original member schools (Baraboo, Portage and Reedsburg) left to join the Badger Conference as part of a five-school expansion. These three schools had the largest enrollment levels in the South Central Conference and wanted to join a conference more in line with their size. They were replaced by Lodi and Poynette from the Capitol Conference and Westfield from the disbanded Dual County Conference. Lodi and Poynette quickly became disappointed with the longer travel distances between conference opponents and returned to the Capitol Conference five years after their exit. They were replaced by Wautoma, formerly of the East Central Flyway Conference, bringing conference membership to six schools. This figure is set to expand in 2025, when

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Within the boundaries of the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, the ...

join from the

East Central Conference The East Central Conference is a high school athletic conference in Wisconsin. Originally founded in 1970, it was disbanded in 2001 and remained defunct until its reconstitution in 2015. It will be dissolved again after 2024-25 school year, and al ...

, which is set to be realigned out of existence by the WIAA.

Football-only alignment

In February 2019, in conjunction with the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association, the WIAA released a sweeping football-only realignment for Wisconsin to commence with the 2020 football season and run on a two-year cycle. Previously, the South Central Conference featured two football-only members for the 2019 football season: Black River Falls (a former member from 1963-1977) and Gale-Ettrick-Trempeleau. Both schools were primary members of the Coulee Conference and brough the roster of football members to eight schools. For the 2020-2021 cycle, Black River Falls and G-E-T were moved back to the Coulee Conference, and Nekoosa was moved to the large-schools division of the Central Wisconsin Conference. The outgoing members were replaced with the Montello/

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

/ Green Lake football cooperative of the Trailways Conference and Poynette of the Capitol Conference. This alignment stayed in place for three seasons before the Montello/Princeton/Green Lake football cooperative was dissolved, with Montello and Green Lake/Princeton both moving to

eight-man football Eight-man football is a form of gridiron football, generally played by high schools with smaller enrollments. Eight-man football differs from the traditional 11-man game with the reduction of three players on each side of the ball and a field wid ...

. For the 2024 season, the South Central Conference welcomed Berlin, Ripon and

Waupun Waupun is a city in Dodge and Fond du Lac counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 11,344 at the 2020 census. Of this, 7,795 were in Dodge County, and 3,549 were in Fond du Lac County. In Fond du Lac County, the Town of Waup ...

(all primary members of the

) as new members with the return of Nekoosa after four seasons in the Central Wisconsin Conference. For Berlin and Ripon, this move came a year in advance of both schools joining the South Central Conference as full members. This offset the loss of Poynette to the Eastern Suburban Conference and Westfield to the Trailways Conference as a football-only member.

List of conference members (1952–present)

Current members

Current football-only members

Future members

Former members

Former football-only members

Conference membership history (1926–1941)

Membership timeline

Full members (1926–1941)

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1926 till:1941 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m bar:1 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1941 text:Baraboo (1926-1941) bar:2 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1941 text:Portage (1926-1941) bar:3 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1941 text:Reedsburg (1926-1941) bar:4 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1941 text:Richland Center (1926-1941) bar:5 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1941 text:Sparta (1926-1941) bar:6 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1941 text:Tomah (1926-1941) bar:7 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1941 text:Viroqua (1926-1941) bar:8 color:tan1 from:1928 till:1941 text:La Crosse Logan (1928-1941) bar:9 color:tan1 from:1939 till:1941 text:Wisconsin Dells (1939-1941) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1926

Full members (1952–present)

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1952 till:2030 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:70 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m bar:1 color:tan1 from:1952 till:1963 text:Baraboo (1952-2001) bar:1 color:skyblue from:1963 till:1966 text: bar:1 color:tan1 from:1966 till:2001 text: bar:2 color:tan1 from:1952 till:1963 text:Mauston (1952-present) bar:2 color:blue from:1963 till:1966 text: bar:2 color:tan1 from:1966 till:2030 text: bar:3 color:tan1 from:1952 till:1963 text:Nekoosa (1952-1966) bar:3 color:blue from:1963 till:1966 text: bar:3 color:tan1 from:1982 till:2030 text:(1982-present) bar:4 color:tan1 from:1952 till:1963 text:Portage (1952-2001) bar:4 color:skyblue from:1963 till:1966 text: bar:4 color:tan1 from:1966 till:2001 text: bar:5 color:tan1 from:1952 till:1963 text:Reedsburg (1952-2001) bar:5 color:skyblue from:1963 till:1966 text: bar:5 color:tan1 from:1966 till:2001 text: bar:6 color:tan1 from:1952 till:1971 text:Richland Center (1952-1971) bar:6 color:skyblue from:1963 till:1966 text: bar:6 color:tan1 from:1966 till:1971 text: bar:7 color:tan1 from:1952 till:1989 text:Sparta (1952-1989) bar:7 color:blue from:1963 till:1966 text: bar:7 color:tan1 from:1966 till:1989 text: bar:8 color:tan1 from:1952 till:1989 text:Tomah (1952-1989) bar:8 color:blue from:1963 till:1966 text: bar:8 color:tan1 from:1966 till:1989 text: bar:9 color:tan1 from:1952 till:1969 text:Viroqua (1952-1969) bar:9 color:blue from:1963 till:1966 text: bar:9 color:tan1 from:1966 till:1969 text: bar:10 color:tan1 from:1952 till:2030 text:Wisconsin Dells (1952-present) bar:10 color:skyblue from:1963 till:1966 text: bar:10 color:tan1 from:1966 till:2030 text: bar:11 color:tan1 from:1963 till:1977 text:Black River Falls (1963-1977) bar:11 color:blue from:1963 till:1966 text: bar:11 color:tan1 from:1966 till:1977 text: bar:12 color:tan1 from:1963 till:1977 text:Sauk Prairie (1963-1977) bar:12 color:skyblue from:1963 till:1966 text: bar:12 color:tan1 from:1966 till:1977 text: bar:13 color:tan1 from:1971 till:2030 text:Adams-Friendship (1971-present) bar:14 color:tan1 from:2001 till:2006 text:Lodi (2001-2006) bar:15 color:tan1 from:2001 till:2006 text:Poynette (2001-2006) bar:16 color:tan1 from:2001 till:2030 text:Westfield (2001-present) bar:17 color:tan1 from:2006 till:2030 text:Wautoma (2006-present) bar:18 color:tan1 from:2025 till:2030 text:Berlin (2025-future) bar:19 color:tan1 from:2025 till:2030 text:Ripon (2025-future) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1952

Football members (since 2019)

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:2019 till:2030 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m bar:1 color:lavender from:2019 till:2030 text:Adams-Friendship (2019-present) bar:2 color:lavender from:2019 till:2020 text:Black River Falls (2019) bar:3 color:lavender from:2019 till:2020 text:Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (2019) bar:4 color:lavender from:2019 till:2030 text:Mauston (2019-present) bar:5 color:lavender from:2019 till:2020 text:Nekoosa (2019) bar:5 color:lavender from:2024 till:2030 text:(2024-present) bar:6 color:lavender from:2019 till:2030 text:Wautoma (2019-present) bar:7 color:lavender from:2019 till:2024 text:Westfield (2019-2023) bar:8 color:lavender from:2019 till:2030 text:Wisconsin Dells (2019-present) bar:9 color:lavender from:2020 till:2023 text:Montello/Princeton/Green Lake (2020-2022) bar:10 color:lavender from:2020 till:2024 text:Poynette (2020-2023) bar:11 color:lavender from:2024 till:2030 text:Berlin (2024-present) bar:12 color:lavender from:2024 till:2030 text:Ripon (2024-present) bar:13 color:lavender from:2024 till:2030 text:Waupun (2024-present) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2019

Membership map

List of state champions

Fall sports

Winter sports

Spring sports

List of conference champions

Boys Basketball

Girls Basketball

Football

References

External links

South Central Conference (official site)
{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences Wisconsin high school sports conferences Sports organizations established in 1926 Sports organizations established in 1952 1926 establishments in Wisconsin 1941 disestablishments in Wisconsin 1952 establishments in Wisconsin