Darren Kinnard/River Radio Sports Central
A charter member of the South Seven Conference may be headed a different direction soon.
Centralia superintendent Dr. Chuck Lane confirms the school was officially invited to join the Cahokia Conference starting in the 2026-27 school year. Lane said via statement, “As with other conference realignment discussions over the last few years, we will evaluate the offer internally, discuss it with our Board of Education and do what’s best for the future of Centralia HS.” Centralia’s next board meeting is scheduled for July 24.
With an enrollment of 887 according to the IHSA enrollment numbers for the 2025-26 school year, if the invitation is accepted, Centralia would enter the Cahokia Conference as the largest school in the conference and be in the Mississippi Division. Cahokia Conference sources say Centralia would join Breese Central, Civic Memorial, Columbia, East Alton/Wood River, Freeburg, Jerseyville, and Waterloo for football, with EAWR competing in the Illinois Division for other sports.
Centralia is the second to smallest school currently in the South Seven behind Mt. Vernon (1217), Marion (1122), and Carbondale (1019) and ahead of Cahokia (764). Highland, who will join the conference in 2026-27, has an enrollment of 832.
A move to the Cahokia Conference would not come without costs for Centralia, one with a price tag and one without. Conference travel would increase by at least 50 percent. Then there’s the sentimental factor.
Centralia, along with rival Mt. Vernon as well as Marion, are charter members of the South Seven, a journey that started in 1939. Fellow charter members Benton, Harrisburg, Herrin, and West Frankfort left in 1993 to help create the Southern Illinois River to River Conference. Along the way, Carbondale joined in 1965 and Cahokia in 1995. While Edwardsville, O’Fallon, and Althoff have all come and gone in the past 30 years, the conference is set to add Highland in 2026-27, which would alleviate a large part of the football scheduling nightmare the five-team conference has faced since Althoff left in 2023.
So how did we get here?
When Mascoutah and Triad announced they were leaving the Mississippi Valley Conference to join the Southwestern Conference back in February, it triggered a series of subsequent conference moves, including the demise of the MVC. Three other Mississippi Valley schools–Civic Memorial, Jerseyville, and Waterloo all joined the Cahokia in the Mississippi Division. Those additions led Salem to say farewell to the Cahokia and hello to the SIRR where they filled an open slot created when Sparta left for, wait for it, the Cahokia Conference in 2020. The restructured Cahokia was to have the new additions Civic Memorial, Jerseyville, and Waterloo join Breese Central, Columbia, East Alton/Wood River, Freeburg, and Roxana in the Mississippi Division for football with EAWR and Roxana dropping to the middle Illinois Division for all other sports. Highland then accepted an invitation to join the South Seven, and the latest spins of the conference carousel appeared to be complete.
But it was not.
Roxana, the smallest school in the Cahokia Mississippi, requested to move to the Illinois Division for football. That request was denied by a 15-1 membership vote. As a result, Roxana submitted its two-year notice that they were opting out of football but wanted to remain in all other sports. In May, Cahokia Conference members voted 16-0 (one school voted present) to suspend Roxana’s complete membership, leaving an odd number of teams and creating a potential open spot.
Having an odd number of conference teams in football creates significant scheduling headaches, as midseason non-conference opponents are difficult to find. Schools in the SIRR and South Seven know this firsthand, having dealt with it the past few seasons. The demise of the Mississippi Valley appeared to “fix” this problem starting in 2026-27 with the addition of Salem to the SIRR Ohio and Highland to the South Seven. Should Centralia choose to leave, the South Seven would remain in football scheduling purgatory with five teams, while the new eight-team Cahokia Mississippi would only need to find two non-conference games.
New conference formed:
Speaking of Roxana, the Shells will be joining with four current independents Althoff, Alton Marquette, Breese Mater Dei, and Madison to form the Metro Valley Conference, a football only conference. The announcement of this new conference included a note that a sixth member school is expected to be added in the near future. The new conference will begin play in 2026.
