Corn Belt Conference

The Corn Belt Conference was a high school athletic conference in the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), based in Central Illinois. The conference consisted of medium-sized and small high schools.^[1]

History

The Corn Belt Conference was originally formed in 1950 by Clinton, Normal Community, Pontiac Township, Trinity (later Central Catholic), and University High Schools. The conference was incorporated into the former Heart of Illinois Conference in 1972 but was reformed in 1978.^[2]^[3]

Eureka High School left the Corn Belt Conference for the Heart of Illinois Conference after the 2015–2016 school year. U-High and Mahomet-Seymour departed for the Central State Eight Conference and Apollo Conference respectively in the 2017–18 school year.^[4]^[5] In April 2016, school boards of the remaining five schools and the school boards of the five schools in the Okaw Valley Conference voted unanimously to merge into a new Illini Prairie Conference beginning in the 2017–18 school year.^[6]

School	Community	Team Name	IHSA class	School type	Year joined	Joined from	Year departed	Departed for	References
Central Catholic (Trinity) High School	Bloomington	Saints	1A/2A/3A	Private	1950		1972	Heart of Illinois (1970s)	^[3]
Clinton High School	Clinton	Maroons		Public	1950		1972	Heart of Illinois (1970s)	^[3]
Normal Community High School	Normal	Ironmen	AA, 2A, 3A	Public	1950		1971	Capitol	^[3]
Pontiac Township High School	Pontiac	Indians	4A	Public	1950		1972	Heart of Illinois (1970s)	^[3]
University High School	Normal	Pioneers	5A	Public lab school	1950		1972	Heart of Illinois (1970s)	^[3]
Washington Community High School	Washington	Panthers		Public	1957	Illini	1972	Heart of Illinois (1970s)	^[3]
St. Teresa High School	Decatur	Bulldogs		Private	1967		1969		^[3]

School	Community	Team Name	IHSA class	School type	Year joined	Joined from	Year departed	Departed for	References
Central Catholic High School	Bloomington	Saints	1A/2A/3A	Private	1978	Heart of Illinois (1970s)	2017	Illini Prairie	^[3]
Clinton High School	Clinton	Maroons		Public	1978	Heart of Illinois (1970s)	1990	Okaw Valley	^[3]
Pontiac Township High School	Pontiac	Indians	4A	Public	1978	Heart of Illinois (1970s)	2017	Illini Prairie	^[3]
University High School	Normal	Pioneers	5A	Public lab school	1978	Heart of Illinois (1970s)	2017	Central State Eight	^[3]
Metamora Township High School	Metamora	Cardinals		Public	1978	Heart of Illinois (1970s)	1982	Mid-Illini	^[3]
Olympia High School	Stanford	Spartans	3A	Public	1978	Heart of Illinois (1970s)	2017	Illini Prairie	^[3]
Eureka High School	Eureka	Hornets	4A	Public	1978 2004	Heart of Illinois (1970s) Tri-County	1982 2016	Blackhawk Heart of Illinois	^[3]
St. Bede Academy	Peru	Bruins	2A	Private	1982		1996	Private School	^[3]
Mahomet-Seymour High School	Mahomet	Bulldogs	4A	Public	1986	Okaw Valley	2017	Apollo	^[2]^[3]
Prairie Central High School	Fairbury	Hawks	4A	Public	1990	Wauseca	2017	Illini Prairie	^[3]
Herscher High School	Herscher	Tigers		Public	2002	Suburban Prairie	2006	Interstate 8	^[3]
Rochester High School	Rochester	Rockets	A, AA, 2A, 3A	Public	2002	Sangamo	2010	Central State Eight	^[3]
Rantoul Township High School	Rantoul	Eagles	4A	Public	2004	Big Twelve	2015	Okaw Valley	^[1]
Illinois Valley Central High School	Chillicothe	Grey Ghosts	4A	Public	2014	Mid-State 6, North Central Illinois	2017	Illini Prairie	^[1]

^ ^a ^b ^c Kindred, Randy (7 February 2013). "Corn Belt Conference votes to add IVC". The Pantagraph. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
^ ^a ^b Kindred, Randy (27 January 2016). "U High opts to join Central State Eight Conference". The Pantagraph. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t "THE GREAT CONFERENCES". Illinois High School Glory Days. Archived from the original on 23 April 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
^ Kindred, Randy (14 April 2015). "Eureka to leave Corn Belt for HOIC in 2016". The Pantagraph. The Pantagraph. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
^ Deacon, Joe (27 January 2016). "Corn Belt, remaining schools contemplate league's future". The Pantagraph. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
^ "Corn Belt Conference merger approved, Illini Prairie Conference created". Chillicothe Times-Bulletin. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 31 May 2016.