The Southern Ten Conference is a former 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 ...

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 ...

, comprising schools in the south central part of the state. It was in operation from 1941 to 1952 and all member schools were 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

The Southern Ten Conference was formed in 1941 by a group of medium-sized high schools in south central Wisconsin after the breakup of two established conferences: the South Central Conference and the Southern Six Conference. 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 ...

had recently been voted out of the South Central by a 5-4 margin for reasons of competitive balance. The three schools that voted with Logan to keep them in the conference (

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) followed them out, and these four schools formed the new Gateway Conference. The five schools that voted for Logan's forced exit from the South Central (

Baraboo Baraboo ( ) is the county seat of Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States, located along the Baraboo River. The population was 12,556 at the 2020 census. The most populous city in the county, Baraboo is the principal city of the Baraboo micropol ...

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 and Wisconsin Dells) joined with five schools from the Southern Six ( 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) in forming the Southern Ten, and competition was set to begin with the 1941-42 basketball season. Watertown, who was removed from the Southern Six prior to the merger for similar reasons to Logan's removal from the South Central, competed as an independent for twelve years until the Braveland Conference was formed in 1953. The Southern Ten Conference split in 1952 due to the reformation of the South Central Conference by the five schools that originally competed in that conference. The five remaining schools that were originally part of the Southern Six joined with members of the disbanded Rock River Valley League (

Evansville Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 census, it is Indiana's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the most populous city in S ...

, Jefferson, Lake Mills and Milton) and Middleton (formerly of the

Madison Suburban Conference The Madison Suburban Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, founded in 1926 and ending competition in 1969. Its members were located in south central Wisconsin, predominantly around the Madison, Wisconsin, Madison ar ...

) to form the new

Badger Conference The Badger Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership concentrated in south central Wisconsin. Established in 1952, the Badger Conference is a member of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. History 1 ...

Conference membership history

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1941 till:1952 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:1941 till:1952 text:Baraboo (1941-1952) bar:2 color:tan1 from:1941 till:1952 text:Edgerton (1941-1952) bar:3 color:tan1 from:1941 till:1952 text:Fort Atkinson (1941-1952) bar:4 color:tan1 from:1941 till:1952 text:Monroe (1941-1952) bar:5 color:tan1 from:1941 till:1952 text:Portage (1941-1952) bar:6 color:tan1 from:1941 till:1952 text:Reedsburg (1941-1952) bar:7 color:tan1 from:1941 till:1952 text:Richland Center (1941-1952) bar:8 color:tan1 from:1941 till:1952 text:Stoughton (1941-1952) bar:9 color:tan1 from:1941 till:1952 text:Wisconsin Dells (1941-1952) bar:10 color:tan1 from:1941 till:1952 text:Wisconsin High (1941-1952) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1941

List of conference champions

Boys Basketball

Football

References

{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences Wisconsin high school sports conferences Sports organizations established in 1941 1941 establishments in Wisconsin 1952 disestablishments in Wisconsin