Tigers won’t play football tournaments unless deal is struck with Hoosier Conference in punishment for switch to Three Rivers

Northwestern Schools might not get to play in this season’s Hoosier Conference football tournaments, according to Northwestern School Corp. Superintendent Kristen Bilkey. Northwestern is now negotiating with the conference to play the 2023-24 football season because of a punitive ban placed on the school. The Hoosier Conference disqualified Northwestern from conference play due to the school’s intent to leave for the Three Rivers Conference in the 2024-2025 season.

In the school’s July Board of Trustees meeting, Bilkey stated, “We have a year left in the Hoosier Conference, and we are going to the Three Rivers Conference, which is a better fit for our student athletes. The Hoosier Conference has decided that they aren’t going to allow our teams to participate in conference tournaments because of our actions of leaving.”

Many Indiana high school athletic programs have announced that they are switching athletic conferences in the last several months. Locally, Lewis Cass School Corp. is among the schools to also leave the Hoosier Conference.

According to Bilkey, after Lewis Cass announced their intended switch, the Hoosier Conference decided it would punish future programs that considered leaving.

“Lewis Cass left, and the Hoosier Conference got together and quickly and decided that anybody who tried to leave like that would be charged $2,000 per school, which would be $18,000, unless you get an agreement.”

During negotiations, it was found that the Hoosier Conference had broken its own constitution’s timeline rules by adding monetary fines to the sanctions against Northwestern without proper notice.

“I checked with the state, and that was null and void; there was no financial penalty,” said Bilkey. “We are still working with them on it, but it is just disappointing that they would choose to do something that would affect our students.”