Northern Indiana Athletic Conference
The Northern Indiana Conference (NIC) is a high school athletic conference that was founded in 1927 and spanned from as far west as Hammond and Gary to South Bend/Mishawaka and Elkhart to the east and south to Plymouth. Since its start in 1927, a total of 32 separate schools have at one time called the NIC home. From its inception until 1963, the conference had been divided into East and West divisions. The West Division (as well as Valparaiso) left to form the Northwestern Conference in 1963. With membership dwindling to 7 members by the  1970s, the conference added former members of the Northern Indiana Valley Conference to its ranks. Currently, every former NIVC member is now a part of the NIC except for South Bend Jackson, which closed in 1973, and South Bend LaSalle, which joined the NIC in 1977, but closed in 2001. History. Like the Southern Indiana Athletic Conference, the NIAC was also a superconference that spanned several counties, and a lot of driving miles, for a period between 1940 and 1965. Throughout the 1970s the membership dwindled as many schools left to form new conferences. From 1995 to 2015 the two  conferences share the same setup with 7 or 8 schools in one county, 8 in this case from St. Joseph County and 1 from an adjacent county, Elkhart in this case. This will change in 2015, as four schools from the folding Northern State Conference will join, making a 13 school conference. This will also expand the conference footprint into two counties formerly represented in the NIAC: LaPorte (last represented in 1995) and Marshall (last represented in 1930). 2020 will bring more change, as Elkhart Central merges with former member Elkhart Memorial to form Elkhart high school, and Mishawaka leaves  for the Northern Lakes Conference, taking Memorial's spot in that league. Sponsored Sports. Boys. Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Football, Golf, Soccer, Swimming & Diving, Tennis, Track & Field, Wrestling Girls. Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Gymnastics, Soccer, Softball, Swimming & Diving, Tennis, Track & Field, Volleyball Rivalries. Main rivalries: Notable sub-rivalries "(Asterisk indicates non-member of NIC)" "(Degree indicates a non-NIC sanctioned sport)"