The Northern Indiana Valley Conference was an IHSAA sactioned conference in the South Bend/Mishawaka metropolitan area. The conference began as the St. Joseph County Conference in 1932, made up of county schools and South Bend schools not in the Northern Indiana Conference. Smaller county schools consolidated and moved to different conferences with more similar-sized schools, and by 1966 the county league was down to four members. The league decided to take in the two county Catholic schools, Marian and St. Joseph, that next year, and rebranded as the NIVC. The league took a hard hits beginning in 1974. Penn was accepted into the NIC, it was announced South Bend Jackson would close after the school year, and the league stopped sponsoring football. South Bend LaSalle were invited to replace LaPorte in the NIC in 1976, though they, like Penn, played in both leagues where schedules permitted. However, when Clay joined the NIC in 1978, the schools broke off their relationship with the Catholic schools. Marian and St. Joseph continued on as independents for the next 27 years. Ironically, with LaSalle closing in 2002, the NIC discussed expanding beyond its seven schools, and took on both of the Catholic schools in 2005, which means every school in the NIVC at its folding eventually was absorbed into the NIC.
Contents
Membership
All schools located in St. Joseph County.
- Was Washington-Clay until 1953
- Concurrent in NIVC and NIC 1974-78.
- Concurrent in NIVC and NIC 1976-78.