Big Northern Conference

The Big Northern Conference (BNC) is an organization of eleven high schools in northern Illinois. These high schools are members of the Illinois High School Association.

The high schools of the Big Northern Conference are located in the following counties: Boone, DeKalb, LaSalle, Lee, Ogle, Whiteside, and Winnebago.

History

The conference was formed in 1991 as a merger of the Big 8 Conference and the Mid Northern Conference. The original 12 members were Burlington Central, Byron, Forreston, Genoa-Kingston, Hampshire, Harvard, Marengo, Oregon, Ottawa Marquette, Richmond-Burton, Stillman Valley, and Winnebago. Over the first 20 years, there were few changes to the conference, with Huntley replacing Forreston in 1995, Johnsburg replacing Ottawa Marquette in 1998, Rockford Lutheran replacing Huntley in 2003, and North Boone replacing Johnsburg in 2006.

Since 2011, however, the conference has had several changes and will grow to 16 schools by 2014. In 2011, Hampshire left for the Fox Valley Conference, and was replaced by Rock Falls and Mendota (Mendota joined for all sports except for football in 2011, and then joined for football in 2012). Rockford Christian joined the conference in 2012, giving the conference an even number of 14 schools, with 7 in each division. In 2014, Johnsburg will rejoin the conference and Dixon will become a new member.

On November 8, 2013, it was announced that Woodstock and Woodstock North planned to leave the Fox Valley Conference by 2015 and create a new conference.^[1] After rumors that current members of the BNC East Division might join this new conference, it was announced on November 19 that five BNC members - Burlington Central, Genoa-Kingston, Harvard, Marengo, and Richmond-Burton - and future member Johnsburg were invited to join the new conference, creating a proposed 8-team conference.^[2] The next day, it was announced that the name for this new conference will be the Kishwaukee River Conference.^[3] In February 2014, it was reported that Harvard and Genoa-Kingston had decided to remain in the BNC, while Richmond-Burton and Johnsburg remained undecided; Harvard later announced that they would, in fact, leave the BNC for the KRC, with the first season of the KRC to be during the 2016-2017 school year. ^{[4] [5]} In June 2014, Richmond-Burton and Johnsburg both voted to officially become charter members of the KRC in 2016. ^{[6] [7]}

With 11 schools in the 2016-2017 school year, the BNC will now only have one division. In football, BNC schools will play against only 8 conference opponents, with the 7 largest schools also playing one game against a team in the KRC. ^[8]

Membership

The conference's current members, as of 2016-2017:^[9]

Notes

1. ↑ The state series class which a school competes in not only depends on the school's student population, but on the sport or activity. Some activities divide schools into two classes, some into three, and others into four. The listing here is in the order of two class, three class, and four class. The more "A"s in a class, the larger the schools competing. For more information on this, see Illinois High School Association#State Series Format.
2. ↑ Schools are not assigned a classification for football until they have qualified for the playoffs each year. A school's classification not only depends on their student population, but on the populations of the other schools who have qualified. Thus, some schools routinely move between classes.

References

External links

• Illinois High School Association, Official Site