Location of Original Southern Eight Conference Members
The Southern Eight Conference was formed as the result of a split of member schools in the Southwest Wisconsin Athletic League. In 1970, Richland Center High School was accepted as the fifteenth member of the SWAL (effective 1971) and was added to the seven-member North Section. Soon after their acceptance, the other eight schools in the South Section voted to split the conference along geographic lines to maintain traditional rivalries and cut transportation expenses. The Southern Eight began competition in 1971, and its membership roster was remarkably stable over the course of its history. The only changes happened in 1983 with Mount Horeb's exit to the Capitol Conference and the addition of Southwestern High School in Hazel Green. The end of the Southern Eight Conference came in 1987, when the conference remerged with the Southwest Wisconsin Athletic League to create a new fourteen-member conference subdivided by enrollment size.
