The Six Rivers Conference was formed in 1997 through the merger of two smaller conferences in southwestern Wisconsin: the Black Hawk League and the State Line League.[1] It was named after the six rivers located in the conference's catchment area (Mississippi, Grant, Sugar, Platte, Fever and Pecatonica).[2] The conference was originally conceived as an umbrella organization, and its original divisional alignment reflects this:[3]
Black Hawk Division
State Line Division
Belmont
Albany
Benton
Argyle
Cassville
Barneveld
Highland
Belleville
Potosi
Black Hawk
River Ridge
Juda
Shullsburg
Monticello
New Glarus
Pecatonica
After the first two seasons, the league realigned itself into two eight-member divisions. Pecatonica joined with the other Black Hawk Division schools in the Western Division while the remainder of the State Line Division schools comprised the new Eastern Division:[4]
Eastern Division
Western Division
Albany
Belmont
Argyle
Benton
Barneveld
Cassville
Belleville
Highland
Black Hawk
Pecatonica
Juda
Potosi
Monticello
River Ridge
New Glarus
Shullsburg
This alignment remained in place until 2006, when the two largest schools in the conference (Belleville and New Glarus) left the Six Rivers to join more similarly-sized schools the Capitol Conference.[5] Pecatonica rejoined their State Line League brethren in the conference's Eastern Division to create two seven-member divisions in an alignment that continues to this day:[6]
Eastern Division
Western Division
Albany
Belmont
Argyle
Benton
Barneveld
Cassville
Black Hawk
Highland
Juda
Potosi
Monticello
River Ridge
Pecatonica
Shullsburg
Because of the size of the Six River Conference's member schools, there are a large number of cooperative programs in certain sports, especially football. A significant number of football-playing members do so as cooperative programs with larger schools in other conferences in the area (i.e. Brodhead-Juda, Mount Horeb-Barneveld, New Glarus-Monticello), although the Six Rivers itself does sponsor football.