Location of Original Wisconsin Valley Conference Members
The Wisconsin Valley Conference was founded in 1920 by seven medium- to large-enrollment high schools in north central Wisconsin: Antigo, Marshfield, Merrill, Rhinelander, Stevens Point, Wausau and Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln. After sponsoring a full football schedule for the first two seasons, basketball played their first full schedule for the 1921-1922 school year. The early years of the Wisconsin Valley Cofnerence saw many smaller schools join for short periods of time, especially for basketball. In 1922, Edgar, Medford and Nekoosa joined and Tomahawk joined the conference for that sport, with Tomahawk also joining the conference's football roster. Edgar left the following year, and in 1924, Shawano and Wautoma joined the WVC. Shawano also became members in football, along with basketball members Medford, for the 1924 season. Nekoosa became the WVC's eleventh football playing member when it joined the group for the 1925 season. In 1926, Shawano and Wautoma left the Wisconsin Valley Conference, and after Medford's exit in 1928, membership stayed stable at nine schools for just over two decades.
1946-1956
Over time, tensions grew between the larger and smaller schools in the conference, with the smaller schools seeking other options outside the WVC. Tomahawk was the first of these schools to take action: first becoming charter members of the football-only Lumberjack Conference in 1946, then joining as full members in 1954 after the league began to sponsor other sports the year prior. Nekoosa followed Tomahawk out of the WVC, joining the Lumberjack for football in 1948, then becoming full members of the newly reformed South Central Conference in 1952. After the loss of Tomahawk as full members in 1954, the Wisconsin Valley Conference faced an even greater challenge the next year. Citing competitive imbalance in football, the four smallest schools in the conference (Antigo, Marshfield, Merrill and Rhinelander) left the Wisconsin Valley to start a new conference called the Northern Wisconsin Conference. These four schools continued to schedule WVC members Stevens Point and Wisconsin Rapids as non-conference opponents, but not Wausau, who had been the dominant force in football for decades. Wausau claimed one last Wisconsin Valley Conference title for football before they joined the new Big Rivers Conference and the four schools who left the WVC rejoined in 1956.
1956-2008
The revamped Wisconsin Valley Conference began play in 1956 with six schools (Antigo, Marshfield, Merrill, Rhinelander, Stevens Point and Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln). A seventh school was added to the Wisconsin Valley in 1957 when former Lumberjack Conference members D.C. Everest High School in Schofield joined the conference. In 1970, Shawano became the eighth school to join the conference after leaving the disbanded Mid-Eastern Conference. Wausau East was invited to rejoin the Wisconsin Valley Conference from the Big Rivers in 1973, along with newcomer Wausau West to bring conference membership to ten schools. Shawano left the Wisconsin Valley Conference to join the Bay Conference in 1979, and the membership group would remain at nine schools for nearly thirty years.
2008-present
In 2008, two of the smaller schools in the conference left to become member of the new Great Northern Conference: Antigo and Merrill. Rhinelander left to compete as an independent in football for the 2009 season before leaving to join the Great Northern Conference as full members in 2010. Merrill, who left the WVC two years earlier to become GNC members, rejoined the WVC for all sports but football as Rhinelander's replacement. After two seasons of difficulties scheduling non-conference opponents, the six football-playing members of the Wisconsin Valley Conference joined forces with the ten-member Fox Valley Association to form the Valley Football Association, which began play in 2011. This arrangement lasted until the WIAA's 2024-2025 competition cycle, when the WVC was reinstated for football and entered into a scheduling partnership with the similarly sized Big Rivers Conference. Five full members of the conference (D.C. Everest, Marshfield, Stevens Point, Wausau West and Wisconsin Rapids) were joined by Big Rivers members Eau Claire Memorial and Eau Claire North in a seven-member roster. This arrangement is set to remain in place through at least the 2026-2027 football competition cycle. In 2025, Merrill returned to the Great Northern Conference after fifteen years of Wisconsin Valley membership, leaving the conference with six full member schools.
