After four years away, the Hillsboro Tigers are making their return to their historic home for the 2024 football season as they rejoin the fold in the Scenic Bluffs Conference.
Hillsboro and the Ithaca Bulldogs are headed to the Scenic Bluffs in the latest round of football-only conference realignment in Wisconsin, while the Onalaska Luther Knights (who competed in SBC the last three seasons) depart for the Coulee Conference.
Luther enjoyed consistent success during its brief time as a football-only member of the Scenic Bluffs, going 18-13 over the last three years while finishing third in the SBC standings and qualifying for the playoffs each season.
The Knights were previously a Coulee Conference member for football from 2011 to 2018 and spent 2019 as part of the SWAL before joining the SBC. Luther heads back to the Coulee to take the place of Altoona as the Railroaders head to the Middle Border Conference.
Hillsboro is a member of the Scenic Bluffs in all other sports but left its longtime home in football for the Ridge & Valley Conference in 2020. After going 3-21 in their first three years in the Ridge & Valley, the Tigers qualified for the postseason last fall with a 4-3 record in conference play and finished with a 4-6 mark overall.
Previously, as a member of the SBC, Hillsboro qualified for the playoffs 16 times in 18 years from 2002 to 2019, including a streak of 14 straight that spanned from 2002 to 2015.
Ithaca is set to play its first football season outside the Ridge & Valley since the conference's inception in 1979. Removing the COVID-influenced fall 2020 season from the equation, the Bulldogs have been part of the playoff field in each of the last 16 seasons — a streak dating back to 2007.
Ithaca also previously made it to nine straight postseasons from 1996 to 2004.
The remainder of the Ridge & Valley Conference from 2023 still competing in 11-player football — Boscobel, Iowa-Grant, Riverdale and Wauzeka-Steuben/Seneca — made the move to the revamped Six Rivers Conference alongside existing members Black Hawk/Warren (IL), Pecatonica/Argyle, Potosi/Cassville and River Ridge.
Benton/Scales Mound (IL)/Shullsburg and Southwestern/East Dubuque (IL) moved from the Six Rivers to the SWAL.
Starting with this season, the Ridge & Valley will no longer serve as a conference for 11-player football. However, it will continue on in the sport as a conference for 8-player football, featuring Belmont, De Soto, Highland, Kickapoo/La Farge, Monticello, North Crawford, Wisconsin Heights and Wonewoc-Center/Weston.
Highland was part of the Ridge & Valley Conference in 11-player football through last year but is now pivoting to 8-player football this fall. Monticello was part of a co-op with New Glarus in 11-player football for 40 years. However, the New Glarus school board voted to dissolve the co-op in the fall of 2022, going into effect following the conclusion of the 2023 season. Monticello will make its debut in 8-player football this year.
The other six teams have played 8-player football under the Ridge & Valley banner the past two seasons.
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