Big Eight Conference (IHSAA)


The Big Eight Conference was an athletic conference currently comprising six IHSAA Class AAA high schools located in Southwestern Indiana. The conference members are small city-based schools located in Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Knox, Posey, and Warrick counties in Indiana and once included Wabash County in Illinois. The conference ceased operations with the 2019-20 Winter Season due the final spring season being canceled because of the 2020 Coronavirus Outbreak.

History

The Big Eight Conference was created in 1980 when seven members of the Southern Indiana Athletic Conference left to form a new conference with a member of the Pocket Athletic Conference. Gibson Southern left in 1992 to rejoin the PAC. Tell City followed to rejoin the PAC in 2001 as well, reducing membership to six schools. Mount Carmel joined in 2003 to increase the membership to seven. Mount Carmel, located in Illinois, was the only school from outside Indiana to compete in an Indiana athletic conference.
There have been two different members of the conference that captured the 3A boys' basketball title in four successive years. Very rarely has this occurred in the history of the state finals. Washington captured the 2007–08, 2009–10, and 2010–11 titles, and Princeton captured the 2008-09 State Title.
The conference's demise was set in motion by the Illinois High School Association voting to establish a district football format in 2021, meaning Mount Carmel would not be able to schedule all of the other conference members in that sport. The conference responded by voting to remove the school in 2020, while the school voted to leave before the 2019-20 school year. This set off a chain reaction, as Jasper and Vincennes Lincoln were accepted to return to the SIAC for 2020, and a week later, the PAC voted to accept the remaining four schools, including two former members, Boonville and Mount Vernon, effectively ending the conference.

Member schools

Former members

State championships

Boonville Pioneers (1)">Boonville High School">Boonville Pioneers (1)

Princeton Community Tigers (2)">Princeton Community High School">Princeton Community Tigers (2)

Sources:

Football

Boys Basketball

Girls Basketball

Note: Big Eight Conference championships are determined by a single round-robin among the active members. The Big Eight Conference does not break ties in the standings for championship purposes, instead co-championships are awarded.

Neighboring Conferences