History
The Six Rivers Conference was formed in 1997 through the merger of two smaller conferences in southwestern Wisconsin: the Black Hawk League and the State Line League. [1] It was named after the six rivers located in the conference's catchment area (Mississippi, Grant, Sugar, Platte, Fever and Pecatonica). [2] The conference was originally conceived as an umbrella organization, and its original divisional alignment reflects this: [3]
| Black Hawk Division | State Line Division |
|---|
| Belmont | Albany |
| Benton | Argyle |
| Cassville | Barneveld |
| Highland | Belleville |
| Potosi | Black Hawk |
| River Ridge | Juda |
| Shullsburg | Monticello |
| New Glarus |
| Pecatonica |
After the first two seasons, the league realigned itself into two eight-member divisions. Pecatonica joined with the other Black Hawk Division schools in the Western Division while the remainder of the State Line Division schools comprised the new Eastern Division: [4]
| Eastern Division | Western Division |
|---|
| Albany | Belmont |
| Argyle | Benton |
| Barneveld | Cassville |
| Belleville | Highland |
| Black Hawk | Pecatonica |
| Juda | Potosi |
| Monticello | River Ridge |
| New Glarus | Shullsburg |
This alignment remained in place until 2006, when the two largest schools in the conference (Belleville and New Glarus) left the Six Rivers to join more similarly-sized schools the Capitol Conference. [5] Pecatonica rejoined their State Line League brethren in the conference's Eastern Division to create two seven-member divisions in an alignment that continues to this day: [6]
| Eastern Division | Western Division |
|---|
| Albany | Belmont |
| Argyle | Benton |
| Barneveld | Cassville |
| Black Hawk | Highland |
| Juda | Potosi |
| Monticello | River Ridge |
| Pecatonica | Shullsburg |
Because of the size of the Six River Conference's member schools, there are a large number of cooperative programs in certain sports, especially football. The Six Rivers has sponsored football since its inception in 1997, and all of the original members belonged to the Black Hawk League for football in the previous season. [7] Most of the members of the State Line League that sponsored football had cooperative agreements with schools in larger conferences (i.e. Brodhead-Juda, Mount Horeb-Barneveld, New Glarus-Monticello) and did not participate with the exception of Black Hawk and Pecatonica/Argyle. For the 2000 season, Belleville/Albany and New Glarus/Monticello moved over from the Capitol Conference, [8] where three of the schools (Belleville, Monticello and New Glarus) had previously played as the Sugar River Raiders football cooperative. [9] This arrangement only lasted one season, as both programs moved to the new Trailways Conference for the 2001 football season. [10] By the end of the 2010s, several programs had entered into cooperative agreements (Potosi and Cassville in 2017, [11] Benton/Scales Mound and Shullsburg in 2019) [12] which coupled with Belmont's transition to eight-player football [13] and Highland's move to the Ridge & Valley Conference [14] dwindled conference membership to five schools. Boscobel and Southwestern entered as football-only members from the Southwest Wisconsin Activities League to replace the lost members for the 2019 football season. [15]
In February 2019, in conjunction with the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association, the WIAA released a sweeping football-only realignment for Wisconsin to commence with the 2020 football season and run on a two-year cycle. [16] Boscobel left to join the Ridge & Valley Conference with Iowa-Grant shifting from the SWAL to take their place. The Six Rivers and SWAL also entered into a scheduling partnership since both conferences only had seven members. [17] For the 2022-2023 competition cycle, Iowa-Grant moved to the Ridge & Valley Conference, and both the Six Rivers Conference and SWAL competed with six members each. [18] Southwestern High School in Hazel Green also entered into a cooperative agreement with East Dubuque High School in Illinois to run a joint football program. [19] In 2024, Riverdale and Seneca/Wauzeka-Steuben joined from the Ridge & Valley Conference, replacing outgoing members Benton/Scales Mound/Shullsburg and Southwestern/East Dubuque, both of which went to the SWAL for football. The return of Boscobel and Iowa-Grant to the conference brought football membership up to eight schools. [20] This alignment is set to remain through at least the 2026-2027 realignment cycle. [21]
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