Indiana high school conference realignment continues with new conference plans for 2026

The wheels of high school conference realignment keep spinning.

A new six-team conference made up of Beech Grove, Indian Creek, Monrovia, Speedway, Triton Central and Tri-West will begin play in 2026. All six are public schools. The league could add two more schools.

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Beech Grove, Monrovia, Speedway and Triton Central are currently members of the now seven-team Indiana Crossroads Conference with Lutheran, Cardinal Ritter and Scecina (Cascade was previously the eighth member). Indian Creek is currently a member of the Western Indiana Conference.

In a letter of separation to the Indiana Crossroads Conference, administrators from Beech Grove, Monrovia, Speedway and Triton Central wrote that they plan to honor current contracts and by-laws through the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years before beginning play in the new conference in August of 2026.

"In an effort to be transparent, we wanted to give you this information as soon as possible, but also had to allow for our school boards and administration to give their input," administrators from the four schools wrote in the joint release. " ... We anticipate this conference going into effect at the start of the 2026-27 school year. This timeline prioritizes the ability for schools to honor former commitments, follow current by-laws, form new conference by-laws and confirm scheduling, etc."

Last spring, the Sagamore Conference broke apart when Crawfordsville, Frankfort, North Montgomery, Southmont and Western Boone announced they were leaving the eight-team league to form a new conference. Cascade, Greencastle and North Putnam were later added to form a new eight-team conference (the Monon Athletic Conference ) that will being play for the 2025-26 school year.

The Sagamore Conference name was retained by Danville, Lebanon and Tri-West. Administrators from the conference, which was founded in 1967, announced in February that Harrison (West Lafayette) and McCutcheon would join the conference as full members starting in the fall of 2025.

A combined release in February from McCutcheon principal Gloria Grigsby and athletic director Ryan Walden, and Harrison principal Cory Marshall and athletic director Jerry Galema, stated: “In joining with Danville, Lebanon and Tri-West, Harrison and McCutcheon have the opportunity to help shape the future membership of the conference.”

The Indiana Crossroads Conference was founded in 2005 as a four-team league: Beech Grove, Cardinal Ritter, Park Tudor and Scecina. Lutheran, Lapel and Speedway joined a few years later. Triton Central joined in 2012 and Monrovia in 2014 when Lapel exited. Cascade replaced Park Tudor in 2019. The ICC announced last spring Covenant Christian would join the fall of 2024 to replace Cascade.

Here are the enrollments of the six schools as of the latest Indiana High School Athletic Association realignment this spring:

Beech Grove: 892 (Class 4A in football)

Indian Creek: 636 (Class 3A in football)

Tri-West: 606 (Class 3A in football)

Speedway: 571 (Class 3A in football)

Monrovia: 503 (Class 2A in football)

Triton Central: 468 (Class 2A in football)

Monrovia athletic director Nick Purichia said the alignment between the six schools "makes a lot of sense" from a geographical and size standpoint.

"When you wrote the schools down on paper, from schools size to competition level to location, they do fit really well," Purichia said. "Tri-West and Indian Creek made a great deal of sense for both sides."

Purichia said the six schools will entertain adding two more schools before the conference officially begins. But he expects that to happen organically.

"The plan is not to get together and write down schools we're interested in out of respect for the conferences they are in," Purichia said. "If we start in two years with six (teams), that would be fine."

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649 .

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana high school conference realignment continues with new conference plans for 2026