Conference Indiana will drop to only three members starting in the 2026-27 school year, following the departures of Bloomington High School North on Feb. 13, Terre Haute North Vigo High School and Terre Haute South Vigo High School on April 10.
Conference Indiana is a high school athletics conference within the Indiana High School Athletics Association. It was founded in 1996 from the remnants of the Central Suburban Athletic Conference and the South Central Conference, and it covers large portions of central and southern Indiana.
The conference currently sits at six members, but both Terre Haute schools — Terre Haute North and South — and Bloomington High School North will leave Conference Indiana following the 2025-26 school year. Bloomington High School South, Columbus North High School and Southport High School are the only committed members for the 2026-27 school year.
The Terre Haute schools will join the Sagamore Athletic Conference, while Bloomington North will join the Mid-State Conference.
“It was always a conference that we had our eye on, that we thought was a good fit,” Bloomington North Athletic Director Andrew Hodson said of the Mid-State Conference in an interview April 8. “We tried to get into Mid-State about nine years ago and presented them, but we weren’t selected.”
Bloomington North was not alone in its interest in the available spot for the Mid-State Conference, which opened following the departure of Greenwood Community High School for the new Hoosier Legends Conference in 2026-27.
“We had all six (Conference Indiana) schools apply for that one spot in the Mid-State,” Bloomington South Athletic Director J.R. Holmes said. “Because we knew that our conference was on some shaky ground.”
With the only three remaining members considering other conferences, according to Holmes, Conference Indiana currently faces an uncertain future. Nicholas Stevens, Athletic Director of Southport High School, confirmed they had applied for the Mid-State Conference.
Holmes said the athletic directors decided they were going to hold an emergency Zoom meeting the week of April 14. They will discuss the only two options available — convince new schools to join the conference or go their separate ways.
While the former option offers more stability for the remaining schools, Holmes said it was a struggle to persuade teams to join when the conference was at six members. However, not all hope has been given up yet.
“We’ve tried to add people in, some people showed interest, but they didn’t want to travel all the way to Terre Haute,” Holmes said. “So, now that Terre Hautes’ out, maybe that might shake their interest again.”
However, the desire not to fall behind other schools may end up dissolving Conference Indiana — which has existed since 1996.
Splitting up the conference also does not guarantee a future at another conference. If no spots are available in other conferences by the 2026-27 school year, the leftover schools may be forced to temporarily become independent, which would require building its entire schedule on its own in all sports.
“Football will be the biggest challenge,” Holmes said. “We may have to travel out of state or some Ohio-state teams to travel here. It would be a difficult situation, but I’m sure, one, that we will eventually get it worked out.”
As of right now, Conference Indiana has six teams for the 2025-26 school year.
