North Central Illinois Conference

North Central Illinois Conference

The North Central Illinois Conference, far better known as the NCIC, was an IHSA recognized high school extra-curricular conference. It location, as the name would indicate, was in the north-central part of the state. The schools all hailed from communities with municipal populations in the 5000-20,000 range.

Until the departure of the Rochelle Hubs in 2006, the NCIC's 42-year span of unchanged membership was the longest of any high school conference.[1] However, that one change sent shockwaves through the rest of the conference, ultimately resulting in the dissolution of the NCIC at the end of the 2010-11 school year.

Contents

History

Formation and growth

The North Central Illinois Conference was formed in 1929. Its charter members were Belvidere, DeKalb, Dixon, Mendota, Rochelle, and Sterling.[2] Over the next thirty years more schools joined, and by 1960, there were twelve member schools.

In the late 1960s it was decided to divide the conference into two divisions. This was due to a wide variance in the sizes of the member schools' populations, and the IHSA regulations which prohibited the larger schools from playing in the same size division against the smaller schools during football playoffs. Thus the conference was split into Northeast and Southwest divisions (later renamed the Reagan and Lincoln divisions). Despite this accommodation, however, over the next thirty years, the larger schools grew far more rapidly than the smaller schools, creating even greater discrepancies; it became doubtful that the twelve schools could continue to share the same banner.

The first crack: Rochelle leaves after 77 years

The 2006 season saw the first change in the conference line-up in 42 years, as the Rochelle Hubs left the NCIC. The Hubs, having won nine consecutive NCIC football championships, were in search of stronger competition, and became a charter member of the Western Sun Conference.[3] Rochelle was quickly replaced in the conference line-up by Illinois Valley Central High School, located in Chillicothe.[4] However, the departure of Rochelle created shockwaves through the conference which continue to reverberate.

The dam bursts

In 2009, the NCIC added the Morris Redskins to its Reagan Division. However, other long-time NCIC schools, such as LaSalle-Peru, began making plans to find another conference. At the beginning of the 2010-11 school year, all the teams from the NCIC Reagan division left to join the new Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference, a two-division larger school conference. Also joining as a charter member of the NIB-12 was former NCIC powerhouse Rochelle, meaning that over half of the NIB-12's membership consists of former NCIC schols. Also leaving were the Kewanee Boilermakers, who left for the Three Rivers Conference.[5]

The NCIC did not immediately dissolve, however. For the 2010-11 school year, the NCIC added one school, the St. Bede Bruins of Peru, who replaced departing Kewanee in all sports except football. The St. Bede football program remains in the Big Rivers. Under IHSA regulations, with only five football participants, the automatic playoff qualifier privileges for the NCIC's champion could be suspended. However, a team could still make the state playoffs as an at-large team, and in fact, both Mendota and IVC gained playoff spots.[6]

The dissolution of the NCIC continued, however, despite gaining St. Bede. Both Rock Falls and Mendota will leave for the Big Northern Conference after the 2010-2011 academic year,[7]. At least two schools (Princeton and IVC) have accepted invitations to play football--Princeton in the West Central Conference[8] and IVC in the Mid-State 6[9] IVC was turned down by four other conferences before successfully petitioning for an invitation from the Mid-State Six.[10] Princeton has not yet found a conference for other sports.[11] Reports have surfaced that Princeton has asked to join the Big Northern Conference, but have not received an invitation.[12]

Even the NCIC's two smallest schools, long-time member Hall Township and new inductee St. Bede, announced that they too were leaving in 2011, for the Tri-County Conference.[13]. With only one to three schools remaining without other conference affiliations (depending on whether one is talking about football or other sports) the dissolution of the NCIC became a near-certainty.[14]

Hope for the future

Without a conference willing to accept them for non-football membership, IVC and Princeton began reconsidering a future in the NCIC. In March, 2011, the principal of IVC, Kenton Bergman, announced that he would personally serve as the new president of the NCIC, and that the conference would continue as a non-football conference. For the 2011-12 school year there would only be three members (IVC, Princeton, and St. Bede), but Bergman stated the conference was developing a three-year plan to expand into a six to eight team conference.[15][16]. However, news reports in the summer of 2011 indicated that the NCIC has, in fact, folded.[17]

Membership timeline

Final year membership

^ = left for the Big Northern Conference beginning in the 2011-2012 academic year
% = left for the Tri-County Conference beginning in the 2011-2012 academic year

References

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • North Coast Athletic Conference — (NCAC) Established 1983 Association NCAA …   Wikipedia

  • North Central College — Athletic logo North Central College Mo …   Wikipedia

  • North Central University — Not to be confused with Northcentral University. North Central University Motto Your Life, Our Mission Established 1930 Type …   Wikipedia

  • Northern Illinois Conference (athletic division) — The Northern Illinois Conference (NIC 10) is a high school athletic conference consisting of nine high public schools and one Catholic school in Illinois Boone, Stephenson, and Winnebago Counties. Member schools are also full members of the… …   Wikipedia

  • Northern Illinois Conference (United Methodist) — Part of a series on Methodism John Wesley …   Wikipedia

  • North Egypt Conference — (NEC) Established 1929 Folded 2003 Members 8 Region Southern Illinois Locations …   Wikipedia

  • South Central Illinois — is a region in the southern part of Illinois located approximately between U.S. Highway 50 in the south and Illinois Highway 16 in the north. Blessed with fertile soil throughout the region, agriculture is a chief industry here. Some of the… …   Wikipedia

  • North Suburban Conference (Illinois) — For the Minnesota high school conference, see North Suburban Conference (Minnesota) North Suburban Conference Data Established Members 14 …   Wikipedia

  • Illinois — /il euh noy , noyz /, n. 1. a state in the central United States: a part of the Midwest. 11,418,461; 56,400 sq. mi. (146,075 sq. km). Cap.: Springfield. Abbr.: IL (for use with zip code), Ill. 2. a river flowing SW from NE Illinois to the… …   Universalium

  • Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference — This is one of two Big Twelve athletics conferences in the state of Illinois. For the Big Twelve in Central Illinois, see Big Twelve Conference (Illinois). For the NCAA athletic conference in the Central United States, see Big 12 Conference. The… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”