Established 1939 Region Southern Illinois | Members 6 | |
The South Seven Conference is a high school athletic conference comprising six schools in the southern Illinois.
History
The South Seven was formed in 1939 when Centralia and Mt. Vernon departed the North Egyptian Conference and joined Marion, Benton, Harrisburg, Herrin and West Frankfort (hence, the name of the conference since it only had 7 members). Carbondale joined the conference in 1965, but the name of the conference was not changed.
In 1993, the four smallest schools (Benton, Harrisburg, Herrin and West Frankfort) departed for the River-to-River Conference. Edwardsville and O'Fallon were added, with the former being a short-term replacement while a permanent member was sought. In 1995, Edwardsville left for the Southwestern Conference and was replaced by Cahokia. Over the next couple of years, O'Fallon would continue to grow to the point that it was much larger than the rest of the schools, and in 2000 the Panthers also left for the Southwestern Conference, replaced by Belleville Althoff. Throughout the changes, the "South Seven" moniker has remained even though the conference currently only has 6 members and has never had exactly 7 member schools in almost 50 years.
From time to time, there are rumors or questions about adding a 7th school; the most common suggestion being that Salem should join the conference (especially given its proximity to both Centralia and Mt. Vernon and the increasing distance it has to travel to fellow members of the Apollo Conference). However, Salem has repeatedly shown no interest in joining the South Seven.