The Badger Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership concentrated in south central Wisconsin. Established in 1952, the Badger Conference is a member of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.
The Badger Conference was formed in 1952, and most of its members came from two conferences that disbanded the year prior: Edgerton, Fort Atkinson, Monroe, Stoughton and Wisconsin High from the Southern Ten Conference, and Evansville, Jefferson, Lake Mills and Milton from the Rock River Valley League. Middleton, formerly of the Madison Suburban Conference, rounded out the original membership roster at ten schools. Three years after joining the conference, three schools left for the Madison Suburban Conference: Evansville, Lake Mills and Milton. They were replaced by the recently opened Monona Grove High School, who joined the conference in 1956. Sun Prairie moved over from the Madison Suburban Conference in 1963, and University of Wisconsin High was closed the next year, with its students being moved to Madison Central High School. The Badger Conference's membership roster would stay consistent until major realignment in the late 1970s.
In 1977, the Badger Conference underwent a significant realignment. Three schools left the conference: Edgerton and Jefferson for the Rock Valley Conference and Sun Prairie for the Big Eight Conference. They were replaced that same year by Oregon from the Central Suburban Conference and Sauk Prairie from the South Central Conference. Ten years later, DeForest and Waunakee joined from the Capitol Conference. Middleton left to join the Big Eight in 1994, and their place was taken by Verona from the Capitol Conference. Fort Atkinson left for the Southern Lakes Conference in 1997, and Edgewood High School of the Sacred Heart in Madison joined in 1999 after competing independently as a WISAA member for most of their athletic history.
In 2001, the Badger Conference expanded from nine to fourteen schools, adding three schools formerly in the South Central Conference (Baraboo, Portage and Reedsburg) and two who joined from the Capitol Conference (McFarland and Mount Horeb). In order to accommodate this, the conference split its members into North and South Divisions:
In 2008, McFarland and Verona left the Badger Conference to join the Rock Valley and Big Eight Conferences, respectively. Their place in the South Division was taken by Fort Atkinson and Milton, who rejoined the Badger Conference from the Southern Lakes Conference. Beaver Dam and Watertown joined from the dissolved Wisconsin Little Ten Conference in 2017 and were placed in separate divisions (Beaver Dam in the North, Watertown in the South). In 2021, the Badger Conference realigned its divisions by East and West for most sports:
This alignment only remained in place for two years, as it was replaced by Large School and Small School divisions in 2023. During this same year, McFarland and Monroe swapped conference affiliations: McFarland rejoined the Badger Conference and Monroe went to the Rock Valley Conference. Monroe's departure left Stoughton as the only school to have been a member of the conference for its entire history. In March 2026, the WIAA's Board of Control approved a request by Portage to leave the Badger Conference's Small School division to join the Capitol Conference for the 2027-28 school year, a move that will decrease Badger Conference membership to fifteen schools.
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. The Badger Conference remained at sixteen schools and adopted the large/small school divisional alignment three years before doing so for all sports, but with some changes to membership. Janesville Craig and Janesville Parker moved over as football-only members from the Big Eight Conference and were placed in the large-school division, with Edgewood and Monroe moving over to the Rock Valley Conference. The two Janesville schools returned to the Big Eight Conference for the 2022 football season, exchanging affiliations with Sun Prairie East and Sun Prairie West. Baraboo and Reedsburg moved over to the Mississippi Valley Conference and DeForest took their place in the small-schools division to give the Badger Conference fourteen members in two seven-team divisions for football. In 2024, Edgewood made their return to the Badger Conference as a football member, joining from the Capitol Conference along with Lakeside Lutheran in Lake Mills. They replaced Beaver Dam and Watertown, who left to join the East Central Conference as football-only members. Three schools moved over from the small-school division (DeForest, Fort Atkinson and Monona Grove) to give the large-school division eight members and the small-school division (who play an interlocking schedule with the East Central Conference) six members. The Badger Conference will be expanding to sixteen football members for the 2026-2027 cycle, welcoming back Beaver Dam and Watertown from the shuttered East Central Conference. Additionally, McFarland and Monroe will be rejoining from the Rock Valley Conference, replacing Lakeside Lutheran and Portage after their reshuffling to the Capitol Conference.
Future associate members
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