The shake up and shuffling in the Southern Illinois River-To-River Conference continues as the announcement was made late Tuesday afternoon that two schools from the Ohio would be joining the Mississippi, now making the Ohio Division a five-team conference.
Benton and West Frankfort High School will join the Mississippi Division, that now includes Anna-Jonesboro, Du Quoin, Pinckneyville and Nashville in the 2023-24 school year.
Carterville, formerly with the Mississippi Division, will move to the Ohio and join Herrin, Harrisburg, Massac County and Murphysboro.
From a football perspective, this now puts the Mississippi Division at six teams, which is what's needed by IHSA standards to receive the automatic bid for the playoffs.
From an enrollment standpoint, moving Benton and West Frankfort over to the Mississippi, makes it more of a small-school conference.
The realignment in the Mississippi comes after Sparta decided to go to the Cahokia Conference next season, leaving the SIRR with 11 schools. Back in December, there was a meeting with school administrations, including superintendents, principals and athletic directors, where any discussion of an 8-team conference was tabled and deciding to move ahead as they were.
Enrollment
M--Nashville 405
M-- Pinckneyville 425.5
M-- Du Quoin 435
M-- West Frankfort 504
M-- Anna_Jonesboro 512
O--Harrisburg 543.5
M-- Benton 555.5
O--Massac Co. 587.5
O--Carterville 593.5
O--Murphysboro 610
O--Herrin 745
