History
The North Eastern Conference was founded in 2015 by ten medium-sized high schools in northeastern Wisconsin. [1] Half of the conference's membership roster came from the disbanded Eastern Valley Conference (Clintonville, Fox Valley Lutheran, Freedom, Little Chute and Waupaca), four members were formerly in the Bay Conference (Denmark, Luxemburg-Casco, Marinette and Oconto Falls) and Wrightstown joined after the Olympian Conference ceased operations. There were no changes to conference membership for its first ten seasons, until it was announced that Fox Valley Lutheran will be joining with larger schools in the Bay Conference for the 2025-26 school year. [2]
Football has been sponsored by the North Eastern Conference for its entire history, with nine of the original ten members participating. Waupaca belonged to the Bay Conference as an associate member for football when the North Eastern Conference was formed and has not competed in its football alignment to date. [3] In February 2019, the WIAA and Wisconsin Football Coaches Association unveiled a comprehensive realignment plan for Wisconsin high school football, subject to realignment every two years. [4] The North Eastern Conference's football alignment under this plan kept six member schools (Denmark, Freedom, Little Chute, Luxemburg-Casco, Marinette and Wrightstown) with Clintonville and Oconto Falls becoming members of the MONLPC Football Conference and Fox Valley Lutheran joining the Bay Conference. Menominee High School, located just across the Menominee River from Marinette in the upper peninsula of Michigan, joined as its seventh member. [5] Kingsford High School in Michigan joined as an eighth member for the 2021 season, [6] before the realignment of the 2022-2023 competition cycle placed them back into Michigan-based conferences. [7] Marinette was moved to the Packerland Conference, and was replaced by full members Fox Valley Lutheran, who were previously football-only members in the Bay Conference. Since the North Eastern Conference was now down to six members for football, they entered into a double-crossover scheduling partnership with the Bay Conference, who also stood at six participants. [8] In 2024, Fox Valley Lutheran made their return to the Bay Conference as a football member (before joining as full members in 2025), coupled with Sheboygan Falls and Two Rivers moving over from the Eastern Wisconsin Conference. With both conferences now standing at seven members, the scheduling alliance with the Bay Conference continued as a mandatory single-crossover game for each school. [9] This alignment is set to remain in place through at least the 2026-2027 competition cycle. [10]
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