Big Nine Conference


The Big Nine Conference, formerly the Big Eight Conference, was a high school sports conference in Genesee County, Michigan, that ended with four high schools in 2012.

History

Formed in 1960 as the Big Eight Conference, the conference became the Big Nine Conference in 1962 with the addition of Mt. Morris High School. Ainsworth High School left in 1968, and Mt. Morris left in 1972. Powers Catholic High School joined in 1974. In 1976, Carman High School and Swartz Creek High School were added from the Flint Metro League, giving the conference its peak membership of 10. Due to the collegiate Big Ten Conference, the conference's name remained the Big Nine Conference.
Membership in the Big Nine remained stable for the next 21 years, with only the newly merged Carman-Ainsworth taking Carman's place in the conference in 1986. Owosso High School left in 1997 for the Mid-Michigan Athletic Conference - A. Beecher left the league after the 2002 season. In 2003, the Owosso Trojans returned to the league after the Mid-Michigan Athletic Conference - A dispersed.
Clio in 2005 and Swartz Creek in 2006 moved to the Flint Metro League as the conference was perceived as being overpowering to those schools.
In 2006, the entire Big Nine Conference applied for membership in the Flint Metro League to encourage discussion on a merger. As a result of that and Kearsley's interest back in 2005–2006, a membership invitation was extended to Kearsley. In 2007, Owosso left for the Capital Area Activities Conference - Red.
Grand Blanc Schools moved to the Kensington Lakes Activities Association starting in the 2009–2010 season.
In August 2011, the remaining Big Nine members and Flint Northwestern High applied together to join the Saginaw Valley League and were accepted to join starting in the 2012–2013 school year, forming Saginaw Valley's southern division with the other Flint City District High Schools.

Membership

The conference had 13 different members over the course of its history. Of the 11 existing former members, four are in the Flint Metro League, three are in the Saginaw Valley League, two are in the Genesee Area Conference, one is in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association, and one is in the Capital Area Activities Conference.
SchoolLocationTenureSubsequent conference membership
Ainsworth High SchoolMundy Township1960–1968Flint Metro League
closed in 1986
Beecher High SchoolBeecher1960–2002Independent
Carman High SchoolFlint Township1976–1986
Carman-Ainsworth High SchoolFlint Township1986–2012Saginaw Valley League
Clio High SchoolClio1960–2005Flint Metro League
Davison High SchoolDavison1960–2012Saginaw Valley League
Flushing High SchoolFlushing1960–2012Saginaw Valley League
Flint Metro League
Grand Blanc High SchoolGrand Blanc1960–2009Kensington Lakes Activities Association
Kearsley High SchoolFlint1960–2008Flint Metro League
Mount Morris High SchoolMount Morris1962–1972Flint Metro League
Genesee Area Conference
Owosso High SchoolOwosso1960–1997
2003–2007		Mid-Michigan Athletic Conference - A
Capital Area Activities Conference
Powers Catholic High SchoolFlint1974–2012Saginaw Valley League
Swartz Creek High SchoolSwartz Creek1976–2006Flint Metro League

Timeline


DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1960 till:2015
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5
Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:m
bar:1 color:powderblue from:1960 till:1968 text: Ainsworth
bar:2 color:powderblue from:1960 till:2002 text: Beecher
bar:3 color:powderblue from:1960 till:2005 text: Cilo
bar:4 color:powderblue from:1960 till:2012 text: Davison
bar:5 color:powderblue from:1960 till:2012 text: Flushing
bar:6 color:powderblue from:1960 till:2009 text: Grand Blanc
bar:7 color:powderblue from:1960 till:2008 text: Kearsley
bar:8 color:powderblue from:1960 till:1997 text: Owosso
bar:8 color:powderblue from:2003 till:2007 text:
bar:9 color:powderblue from:1962 till:1972 text: Mt. Morris
bar:10 color:powderblue from:1974 till:2012 text: Powers Catholic
bar:11 color:powderblue from:1976 till:1986 text: Carman
bar:12 color:powderblue from:1976 till:2006 text: Swartz Creek
bar:13 color:powderblue from:1986 till:2012 text: Carman-Ainsworth
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1960
TextData =
fontsize:L
textcolor:black
pos: # tabs:
text:"Big Nine Conference membership history"