Northern Illinois Conference (athletic conference)

The Northern Illinois Conference (NIC-10) is a high school athletic conference consisting of nine high public schools and one Catholic school in Illinois' Boone, Stephenson, and Winnebago Counties. Member schools are also full members of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), and are among the larger schools in that area, all competing in Class AA (in the two class system) of IHSA competitions.

Members

* Depending on the sport/activity, schools compete in a two class, three class, or four class system. The classes are listed in that order in this table.

History

The conference was originally founded as the Big 7 in 1919 and included Freeport High School, Rockford Central High School, Joliet High School, Elgin High School, DeKalb High School, Aurora East High School, and Aurora West High School. DeKalb left the conference in 1929, and was replaced by LaSalle-Peru High School. In the spring of 1940, Rockford High School closed with the opening of Rockford West and Rockford East high schools in the fall of 1940 (and the conference naturally became the Big 8). In 1960, Joliet High School left and quickly was replaced by the newly constructed Rockford Auburn High School. In 1963, Aurora East, Aurora West, and Elgin high schools departed, and were immediately replaced by Harlem High School, Belvidere High School, and the newly opened Rockford Guilford High School. 1964 saw LaSalle-Peru leave after being a member of the conference for 35 years and Boylan Central Catholic High School join. The addition of Rockford Jefferson High School in 1971 forced the conference to change their name to the Big 9.