The Southwest Wisconsin Conference is a high school athletic conference in Wisconsin's Driftless Area. Comprising the six largest high schools in the southwest corner of the state, the conference was founded in 2005 and is 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 Southwest Wisconsin Conference was formed from a membership split in the Southwest Wisconsin Athletic League. Since 1987, the SWAL had consisted of fourteen schools in two divisions subdivided by membership size. Division I consisted of the larger schools, and the smaller schools made up Division II. This divisional alignment remained intact for the next sixteen years until 2003. Cuba City, the smallest school in the SWAL Division I, sought to switch divisions and join with smaller schools in the SWAL Division II. Boscobel, the largest school in Division II, resisted the move and the two factions continued to seek a solution. In 2004, a realignment agreement was reached that would place Boscobel back in an eight-member SWAL Division II, with the remaining six schools comprising Division I. Instead, the six remaining schools ( Dodgeville,

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

, Platteville,

Prairie du Chien Prairie du Chien may refer to: Places *Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin Prairie du Chien ( ) is a city in Crawford County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. The population was 5,506 at the 2020 census. Often called Wisconsin's second- ...

, Richland Center and

River Valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over a ...

) left the SWAL to form the Southwest Wisconsin Conference, commencing play in the 2005-06 school year.

Football

For the first fourteen seasons of the Southwest Wisconsin Conference, the six members that comprised its all-sport lineup also made up its football roster. During this period, Lancaster was a dominant force in the sport, winning eleven conference championships and three state titles. To achieve greater parity among conference members, Lancaster was moved to the Southwest Wisconsin Activities League as a football-only member for the 2019 season and were replaced by three schools from the

Coulee Conference The Coulee Conference is a high school athletic conference of medium-sized schools based in west central Wisconsin. Founded in 1926, it is one of Wisconsin's oldest athletic conferences and its member schools are affiliated with the Wisconsin Inte ...

: Arcadia, Viroqua and Westby. This would only last for one season, as the

Wisconsin Football Coaches Association The Wisconsin Football Coaches Association is an association of American football coaches on all levels within the state of Wisconsin. An annual clinic of members is held in Madison, Wisconsin to promote the sport, primarily at the high school lev ...

and the WIAA collaborated on a football-only realignment to begin with the 2020 football season and run on a two-year cycle. The three Coulee Conference members returned to that conference, with Brodhead/ Juda of the

Rock Valley Conference The Rock Valley Conference is a high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, originally formed as the Central Suburban Conference in 1969. All member schools belong to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association and are concentrated in t ...

and New Glarus/

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...

of the

Capitol Conference The Capitol Conference was a high school athletic conference in the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), based in Central Illinois Central Illinois is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois that consists of the entire central third of the s ...

entering as their replacements. The SWC also entered into a scheduling alliance with the South Central Conference as part of the realignment. However, the SWC instead joined forces with the SWAL to play their football season in the spring 2021 alternate season due to the COVID-19 pandemic with the new alignment taking effect for the fall 2021 season. In 2022, Lancaster made their return to the SWC, replacing New Glarus/Monticello after their return to the Capitol Conference. For the current 2024-2025 realignment cycle, New Glarus returned to the SWC to bring football membership to eight schools and nullify the South Central Conference scheduling agreement. The Southwest Wisconsin Conference will go back to seven football members in 2026 when New Glarus joins the SWAL, along with a new interconference scheduling arrangement with the

Eastern Suburban Conference The Eastern Suburban Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, originally formed in 1969 and disbanding in 2001. With the exception of the conference's two private schools, all members belonged to the Wisconsin Intersch ...

List of member schools

Current members

Current football-only members

Former football-only members

Membership timeline

Full members

Football members

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:2005 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:2005 till:2030 text:Dodgeville (2005-present) bar:2 color:lavender from:2005 till:2030 text:Lancaster (2005-present) bar:3 color:lavender from:2005 till:2030 text:Platteville (2005-present) bar:4 color:lavender from:2005 till:2030 text:Prairie du Chien (2005-present) bar:5 color:lavender from:2005 till:2030 text:Richland Center (2005-present) bar:6 color:lavender from:2005 till:2030 text:River Valley (2005-present) bar:7 color:lavender from:2019 till:2020 text:Arcadia (2019) bar:8 color:lavender from:2019 till:2020 text:Viroqua (2019) bar:9 color:lavender from:2019 till:2020 text:Westby (2019) bar:10 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Brodhead/Juda (2020-present) bar:11 color:lavender from:2020 till:2022 text:New Glarus/Monticello (2020-2021) bar:12 color:lavender from:2024 till:2026 text:New Glarus (2024-2025) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:2005

Membership map

List of state champions

Fall sports

Winter sports

Spring sports

List of conference champions

Boys Basketball

Girls Basketball

Football

References

External links

Southwest Wisconsin Conference (official website)
{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences Sports organizations established in 2005 Wisconsin high school sports conferences 2005 establishments in Wisconsin