Illini Prairie Conference

Illini Prairie Conference

Conference	IHSA
No. of teams	10 (one non-football)
Region	Central Illinois

The Illini Prairie Conference is a high school athletic conference in the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), based in Central Illinois. The conference comprises ten medium-sized and small high schools resulting from the merging of the Corn Belt Conference and the Okaw Valley Conference. Conference athletics began in the 2017-18 school year. ^[1]

History

Member schools of the Corn Belt Conference and the Okaw Valley Conference began discussing a merger after the announced departures of Eureka High School and Mahomet-Seymour High School from the Corn Belt Conference in 2014 and 2015. ^[2] Principals of the ten schools voted unanimously in February 2016 to begin plans to merge the conferences. ^[3] School boards of the ten schools approved the new conference in March and April 2016. ^[4] Student bodies of each school submitted favorite names for the conference to the principals. Illini Prairie was selected unanimously by the principals. ^{[5] [6]}

Paxton-Buckley-Loda joined the conference at the start of the 2020-21 school year after, making the move after St. Thomas More decided to play an eight-man football schedule. PBL had played in the Sangamon Valley Conference since 1990. St. Thomas More remains a member of the Illini Prairie Conference in all other sports. ^[7]

Olympia in 2021, left the Illini Prairie Conference to join the Sangamo Conference, Thus leaving the Illini Prairie Conference with ten teams in the Conference and 9 of them that play football, still leaving St. Thomas More an 8-man football team. ^[8]

Member schools

Central Catholic

Illinois Valley Central

Monticello

Pontiac

Prairie Central

Rantoul

St. Joseph

St. Thomas

Unity

PBL

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Illini Prairie Conference Members (clickable map)

School	Location	Mascot	Colors	School type	2021-22 Enrollment	IHSA class	Year joined	Joined from	References
Central Catholic High School	Bloomington, Illinois	Saints		Private	321 / 530.48 (multiplied)	1A/2A/3A	2017	Corn Belt	[9]
Illinois Valley Central High School	Chillicothe, Illinois	Grey Ghosts		Public	610	4A	2017	Corn Belt	[9] [10]
Monticello High School	Monticello, Illinois	Sages		Public	519	3A	2017	Okaw Valley
Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School	Paxton, Illinois	Panthers		Public	463	3A	2020	Sangamon Valley
Pontiac Township High School	Pontiac, Illinois	Indians		Public	656	4A	2017	Corn Belt	[9]
Prairie Central High School	Fairbury, Illinois	Hawks		Public	528	3A	2017	Corn Belt	[9]
Rantoul Township High School	Rantoul, Illinois	Eagles		Public	772	4A	2017	Okaw Valley	[10]
St. Joseph-Ogden High School	St. Joseph, Illinois	Spartans		Public	449	3A	2017	Okaw Valley
St. Thomas More High School	Champaign, Illinois	Sabers		Private	257 / 424.88 (multiplied)	2A	2017	Okaw Valley
Unity High School	Tolono, Illinois	Rockets		Public	517	3A	2017	Okaw Valley

Previous Members

School	Location	Mascot	Colors	School type	Year joined	Year left	Joined from	Current conference
Olympia High School	Stanford, Illinois	Spartans		Public	2017	2021	Corn Belt	Sangamo

See also

• List of Illinois High School Association member conferences

References

1. "Corn Belt Conference merger approved, Illini Prairie Conference created". Chillicothe Times-Bulletin. April 27, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
2. Deacon, Joe (January 28, 2016). "U High, CCHS hope to continue relationship, rivalry". The Pantagraph. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
3. Loveless, Matt (February 16, 2016). "Okaw Valley, Corn Belt Conferences Approve Plans for Future Merger". WAND. Frankly Media. Retrieved May 31, 2016.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
4. Zilis, Anthony (April 4, 2016). "Okaw Valley, Corn Belt conferences will merge". The News-Gazette. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
5. "Pontiac, PC now part of Illini Prairie". Pontiac Daily Leader. April 21, 2016. Archived from the original on April 28, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
6. Zilis, Anthony (April 20, 2016). ""Illini Prairie" selected as name for Okaw Valley-Corn Belt merger | News-Gazette.com". The News Gazette. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
7. "Paxton-Buckley-Loda accepted into Illini Prairie Conference | High School Sports | pantagraph.com".
8. Beherns, Bret (December 16, 2020). "Olympia Leaving Illini Prairie Conference | WCIA.com". WCIA. Retrieved January 18, 2023.
9. "Corn Belt - 2014-2015". ihsa.org. Illinois High School Association. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
10. Kindred, Randy (February 7, 2013). "Corn Belt Conference votes to add IVC". The Pantagraph. Retrieved May 31, 2016.