Center Grove’s football team, shown here celebrating its Class 6A state title last month, will need to find a new conference to play in next season.
What could end up being a crazy few months in high school sports realignment got started on Monday afternoon with an earth-shaking announcement out of Indianapolis.
Center Grove and Carmel, members of the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference since its formation in 1996, were unanimously voted out of the league by its other six member schools after a not-very-secret flirtation with the Hoosier Crossroads Conference in recent months.
A letter signed by the principals of Ben Davis, Lawrence Central, Lawrence North, North Central, Pike and Warren Central cited the MIC constitution as justification for removal of the Trojans and Greyhounds. Those schools will remain together as a six-team league in the spring of 2022.
The MIC said in its letter that the decision will allow Carmel and Center Grove “to seek a conference that aligns with their visions.”
The two schools’ courtship with the HCC “was sad to those of us who understand the rich history,” the MIC letter read, “(but) we also understand that these two schools no longer share the vision that we are more than an athletic conference, that athletics should not drive our decisions, and that our unique characteristics are what make us strong.”
While the MIC has unquestionably been the state’s premier conference in football, basketball and track and field, the league has also suffered from major competitive imbalances in several other sports. The HCC would provide a better fit in that regard for the Trojans and Greyhounds, who have often found themselves in two-team races at best in sports such as softball.
Shortly after the Indianapolis Star broke the news of the MIC’s decision on Monday afternoon, Center Grove and Carmel released a joint statement confirming that they have indeed submitted a formal petition to join the HCC. That league is expected to vote on that proposal in the near future — perhaps, some have suggested, as soon as this month.
That vote suddenly means a lot more to Carmel and Center Grove, who would be without a conference if turned down by the HCC.
The statement by the two departing charter members acknowledged the benefits that were reaped in 26 years of MIC affiliation but said that their desire to find a new home “is rooted in the belief that this move would provide our schools with the collaboration, competition, and support necessary to grow our programs over the next 20 years.”
The HCC currently consists of Avon, Brownsburg, Fishers, Franklin Central, Hamilton Southeastern, Noblesville, Westfield and Zionsville.
Money was likely a factor in Center Grove and Carmel seeking a new conference. At several of the Trojans’ home football games against MIC schools, the number of fans in the visiting bleachers could be counted by hand. The hope is that fans of HCC teams will be more willing to travel — even to Center Grove, which would be the southernmost school in the league and one of just two (along with Franklin Central) south of downtown Indianapolis.
Monday’s decision marks the first time in the MIC’s history that any of the league’s original members have exited.
After just one school year with its original six — Ben Davis, Carmel, Center Grove, Lawrence North, North Central and Warren Central — the league added Terre Haute North and Terre Haute South before the 1997-98 school year. Lawrence Central and Pike came aboard in 2013-14, and the Terre Haute schools left for Conference Indiana the following year.
Now, the MIC faces its most seismic shift to date. A six-school league again for the first time since 1996-97, the conference will be made up entirely of Marion County schools for the first time, with few realistic avenues for expansion in the Indianapolis metropolitan area.
The league has said it will engage in discussion with other schools that “value the diversity our conference offers.”
