Big Eight Conference
Founded1980
Ceased2020
No. of teams6 when dissolved
8 at its height
Region7 Counties: Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Knox, Posey, and Warrick Counties, Indiana plus Wabash County, Illinois
Locations
Big Eight at its height with Mount Carmel included.Big Eight at its height with Mount Carmel included.

The Big Eight Conference was an athletic conference of IHSAA Class AAA high schools located in Southwestern Indiana. The conference members were small city-based schools located in Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Knox, Posey, and Warrick counties in Indiana and once included Wabash County in Illinois. The conference ceased operations with the 2019-20 Winter Season as the final spring season was canceled because of the 2020 Coronavirus Outbreak.

History

The Big Eight Conference was created in 1980 when seven members of the Southern Indiana Athletic Conference (Boonville, Jasper, Mount Vernon, Princeton, Tell City, Vincennes Lincoln, and Washington) left to form a new conference with a member of the Pocket Athletic Conference (Gibson Southern). Gibson Southern left in 1994 to rejoin the PAC. Tell City followed suit to rejoin the PAC in 2001 as well (they had both been in that conference before Tell City joining the SIAC in 1953 when it was a super conference), reducing membership to six schools. Mount Carmel joined in 2003 to increase the membership to seven. Mount Carmel, located in Illinois, was the only school from outside Indiana to compete in an Indiana athletic conference.

There have been two different members of the conference that captured the 3A boys' basketball title in four successive years. Very rarely has this occurred in the history of the state finals. Washington captured the 2007–08, 2009–10, and 2010–11 titles, and Princeton captured the 2008-09 State Title.[1]

The conference's demise was set in motion by the Illinois High School Association member schools initially voting in December 2018 to establish a district football format (but repealing it one year later), meaning Mount Carmel would not be able to schedule all of the other conference members in that sport. The conference responded by voting to remove the school in 2020, while the school voted to leave before the 2019–20 school year. This set off a chain reaction, as Jasper and Vincennes Lincoln were accepted to return to the SIAC for 2020, and a week later, the PAC voted to accept the remaining four schools, including two former members, Boonville and Mount Vernon, effectively ending the conference.[2]

Member schools

Former members

School Location Mascot Colors County Year joined Previous conference Year left Conference joined
Boonville Boonville Pioneers     87
Warrick 		1980 Southern Indiana 2020 Pocket
Gibson
Southern 		Fort Branch Titans    
    		26
Gibson 		1980 Pocket 1994 Pocket
Jasper Jasper Wildcats     19
Dubois 		1980 Southern Indiana 2020 Southern Indiana
Mount
Carmel 		Mount
Carmel 		Golden
Aces 		    (IL)
Wabash 		2003 N. Egypt
(Illinois) 		2019 Little Illini
(Illinois)
Mount
Vernon 		Mount
Vernon 		Wildcats     65
Posey 		1980 Southern Indiana 2020 Pocket
Princeton
Community 		Princeton Tigers       26
Gibson 		1980 Southern Indiana 2020 Pocket
Tell
City 		Tell City Marksmen     62
Perry 		1980 Southern Indiana 2001 Pocket
Vincennes
Lincoln 		Vincennes Alices       42
Knox 		1980 Southern Indiana 2020 Southern Indiana
Washington Washington Hatchets     14
Daviess 		1980 Southern Indiana 2020 Pocket

State championships

Boonville Pioneers (1)

Jasper Wildcats (8)

Mount Carmel Golden Aces (3)

Mount Vernon Wildcats (0)

Princeton Community Tigers (2)

Vincennes Lincoln Alices (3)

Washington Hatchets (9)

Conference championships

Sources:[3][4][5]

Football

School Championships Years
Jasper 23 1981, 1982, 1984*, 1985, 1986*, 1987, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1996*, 1998, 1999*, 2000, 2001, 2004*,
2005, 2006*, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014*, 2015
Vincennes Lincoln 10 1983*, 1984*, 1996*, 1997, 1999*, 2002, 2003, 2004*, 2014*, 2017
Tell City 6 1980, 1984*, 1988, 1989, 1991*, 1992
Mount Carmel 5 2006*, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2014*, 2016
Boonville 4 1984*, 1986*, 1991*, 2018
Gibson Southern 1 1983*
Princeton Community 1 1993
Mount Vernon 0
Washington 0

Boys basketball

School Championships Years
Vincennes Lincoln 21 1981, 1982*, 1984*, 1987, 1988, 1989*, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999*, 2002, 2003*,
2004, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016*
Jasper 10 1982*, 1989*, 1993, 1996, 1999*, 2000*, 2014*, 2016*, 2018, 2019*
Washington 10 1983, 1995, 2003*, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2016*, 2017, 2019*
Princeton Community 6 1984*, 1985, 2009, 2010, 2014*, 2019*
Boonville 4 1986, 1999*, 2000*, 2001
Mount Carmel 0
Mount Vernon 0
Tell City 0
Gibson Southern 0

Girls basketball

School Championships Years
Washington 10 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998*, 1999, 2001, 2003
Jasper 9 1982, 1983, 1988, 1991, 1998*, 2005, 2010*, 2012, 2019
Boonville 7 1981, 1984*, 1985, 1986, 1987, 2000, 2017*
Vincennes Lincoln 6 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2017*, 2018
Mount Carmel 4 2007, 2008, 2011, 2013
Princeton Community 3 2014, 2015, 2016
Mount Vernon 2 1984, 2010*
Tell City 2 1989, 1990
Gibson Southern 0

Note: Big Eight Conference championships were determined by a single round-robin among the active members. The Big Eight Conference did not break ties in the standings for championship purposes, instead co-championships were awarded.

Neighboring Conferences

References

  1. ^ "IHSAA - Play on". Archived from the original on March 18, 2009. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
  2. ^ Hickey, Pat (2019-06-05). "Four Schools to Join Pocket Athletic Conference in 2020-21; Big Eight Will Fold". Washington (IN) Herald Times. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  3. ^ "Past Champions".
  4. ^ "Big 8 Conference Constitution" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-12-22. Retrieved 2014-05-19.
  5. ^ "Past Champions". April 2013.
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