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. 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.

The North Central Illinois Conference was formed in 1929. Its charter members were Belvidere, DeKalb, Dixon, Mendota, Rochelle, and Sterling. 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 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 (Southwest Division) football championships, were in search of stronger competition, and became a charter member of the Western Sun Conference. Rochelle was quickly replaced in the conference line-up by Illinois Valley Central High School, located in Chillicothe. However, the departure of Rochelle created shockwaves through the conference which continued to reverberate and ultimately resulted in the conference's dissolution.

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