The conference shake-up continues for high school sports in Southern Illinois, with Waterloo and Columbia gaining another new future opponent next year.

As reported in March, Waterloo High School voted to join the Mississippi Division of the Cahokia Conference in the fall of 2026, of which Columbia is already a member. This move came following the departure of Mascoutah and Triad from the Mississippi Valley Conference and the eventual dissipation of the MVC – which also includes Waterloo, Highland, Civic Memorial and Jerseyville for one last school year.

Triad and Mascoutah joined the Southwest Conference, with Highland joining the South Seven.

Earlier this month, Centralia voted to leave the South Seven Conference and join the Cahokia Conference effective Aug. 1, 2026.

The Orphans will join the Mississippi Division of the Cahokia Conference for football, which will also consist of Breese Central, Civic Memorial, Columbia, Freeburg, Jerseyville, Wood River and Waterloo. 

Wood River will compete in the middle-sized Illinois Division of this conference in all sports other than football.

The Cahokia Conference, Roxana’s home since 2022, voted to remove Roxana effective in the 2026-27 school year after Roxana opted to declare itself “independent” in football due to a disagreement as to which division it should be placed in based on enrollment.

As a result, Roxana joined the newly formed football-only Metro Valley Conference along with Marquette, Althoff, Mater Dei, Madison and another school yet to be named.

Other schools in this coverage area that are also in the Cahokia Conference – Valmeyer and Dupo – compete in the small-school Kaskaskia Division.

Dupo will compete in the Illinois Division of the conference against the likes of Carlyle, Wesclin, Red Bud, Sparta and Chester.

This coming school year will be Centralia’s 86th and final year in the South Seven, a conference it helped form in 1939.  

Salem, a current member of the Cahokia Conference, has subsequently committed to the River to River Conference for 2026.

Prior to joining the Cahokia Conference, Waterloo Superintendent of Schools Brian Charron said earlier this year there was an effort to keep the MVC from disbanding.

“There were numerous interactions,” Charron said. “We did beg for three of the Cahokia Conference schools to join with us. I would argue that Waterloo and Highland were probably the most outspoken that we wanted the MVC to stick together. That was also pretty easy for Waterloo and Highland to take that position because we were in the middle, and we felt very comfortable having a couple schools that were a little bit smaller than us and a couple schools that were a little bit bigger… I think it’s fair to say that there was a disconnect between the two biggest schools and the two smallest schools in our conference.”

All of this means that opponents on the conference schedules for Waterloo and Columbia athletics will be drastically different after this school year, with new rivalries certain to be formed.