Rock Valley Conference

The Rock Valley Conference is a high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, originally formed as the Central Suburban Conference in 1969. All member schools belong to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association and are concentrated in the Rock River Valley in south central Wisconsin.

The Rock Valley Conference was formed in 1969 as the Central Suburban Conference. Its original membership consisted of four members from the Central Section of the disbanded Madison Suburban Conference (Evansville, Lake Mills, Milton and Oregon) along with newcomers Clinton (from the Indian Trails Conference) and Turner (from the IHSA's SHARK Conference).^[1] Columbus and Parkview joined the following season from the Little Ten Conference and State Line League, respectively.^[2] The Central Suburban Conference maintained this membership roster for the rest of its eight-year history.

In 1977, Columbus and Lake Mills left to join the Capitol Conference and Oregon left to join the Badger Conference. They were replaced by two schools from the Badger Conference (Edgerton and Jefferson) and one from the State Line League (Brodhead).^[3] That same year, the Central Suburban Conference changed its name to the Rock Valley Conference, both a reference to the old Rock River Valley League and the revised catchment area.^[4] In 1982, Jefferson and Milton both left the Rock Valley to join the Southern Lakes Conference and were replaced by Beloit Catholic (from the IHSA's Trailblazer Conference)^[5] and Big Foot (formerly of the Southern Lakes).^[6] Palmyra-Eagle joined the conference in 1990 to bring membership up to nine schools.^[7] Beloit Catholic left to join the Indian Trails Conference in 1996^[8][9] for its last few years before it closed in 2000.^[10]

Membership remained unchanged until 2008 when the conference added four schools.^[11] Jefferson made its return from the Southern Lakes Conference, and three newcomers joined: two from the Southern Lakes (East Troy and Whitewater) and one from the Badger Conference (McFarland).^[12] The conference also split its membership into North and South Divisions:

This alignment lasted until 2017, when both Palmyra-Eagle and Parkview left the Rock Valley to join more similarly-sized schools in the Trailways Conference.^[13] McFarland and Monroe swapped conference affiliations in 2023, with Monroe joining the Rock Valley and McFarland taking their place in the Badger Conference.^[14] Delavan-Darien was also welcomed into the Rock Valley from the Southern Lakes Conference that year,^[15][16] and the conference subdivided into "Rock" and "Valley" Divisions:

This alignment will remain in place until the end of the 2024-25 school year, when four schools leave the Rock Valley Conference. Clinton, Jefferson and Whitewater will be joining the Capitol Conference, while Brodhead is joining a conference yet to be named with seven schools leaving the Capitol Conference (Belleville, Cambridge, Marshall, New Glarus, Poynette, Waterloo and Wisconsin Heights).^[17]

In February 2019, in conjunction with the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association, the WIAA released a sweeping football-only realignment for Wisconsin to commence with the 2020 football season and run on a two-year cycle.^[18] The Rock Valley Conference entered the 2020 football season with eight members: East Troy, Edgerton, Edgewood, Evansville, Jefferson, McFarland, Monroe and Whitewater. Six members had full affiliation with the Rock Valley Conference with the exception of Edgewood and Monroe, who had primary affiliation with the Badger Conference.^[19] In 2022, Edgewood left to join the Capitol Conference as a football-only member with Delavan-Darien moving over from the Southern Lakes Conference as their replacement.^[20] Delavan-Darien played as a football-only member in the 2022 season before gaining full affiliation in the Rock Valley Conference the following year. The Rock Valley Conference will maintain its current football alignment until the 2026-2027 realignment cycle.^[21] Membership will decrease to seven schools with East Troy moving to the Capitol Conference and McFarland swapping affiliations with Portage of the Badger Conference. The Rock Valley and Capitol Conferences will be scheduling partners during this cycle with one mandatory crossover game among each of its members that will count towards their home conference standings.^[22]

 North Division  South Division  Rock Division  Valley Division