The North Central Conference will soon be going from eight members to nine as Charles City will join the conference beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, following a mediation process that included the Iowa High School Athletic Association, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, and Iowa Department of Education, a process that ultimately resulted in an agreement between the NCC and Charles City being reached.
Charles City will be a non-voting member for their first two years in the conference, before becoming a full member starting with the 2027-2028 school year. The upcoming 2024-2025 school year will be unaffected.
As explained by North Central Conference Commissioner Greg Stewart, the Comets will become a full participant immediately in all sports besides volleyball, girls and boys basketball, baseball, and softball, with preexisting schedules being a primary reason for the transition in some sports.
Charles City will be able to compete for a conference championship immediately for the sports in which they are full members.
Previously, Charles City had been a member of the Northeast Iowa Conference, as the Comets were one of the league’s founding members back in 1920. However, the Northeast Iowa Conference is set to dissolve following the 2024-2025 school year, with Oelwein departing the league in 2021, Waverly-Shell Rock exiting after 2024, and Crestwood, New Hampton, and Waukon all joining the Upper Iowa Conference after the current school year, leaving the NEIC with fewer than the minimum amount of schools to form a conference in the state of Iowa.
The Comets had previously applied to join the North Central Conference, but were voted down as two of the eight member schools cast dissenting votes. NCC bylaws allow for denial if more than one school votes against entry. Stewart believes school size and travel distance were the main concerns of the dissenting schools, St. Edmond and Clarion-Goldfield-Dows.
One of the main logistical changes going forward will be the design of the conference schedules once Charles City becomes a full member in the NCC starting in 2027-2028, bringing the total from eight to nine teams. Currently, basketball, baseball, and softball play 14 game conference schedules, with volleyball playing 7 league matches. When the Comets become a full participant in the NCC, it will lead to an increase in conference games and a decrease in the non-conference schedule, while also resulting in a rotating open date on conference nights, as eight of the nine league members will play on a given conference date, with the remaining team having an open date.
Stewart is also looking at geographically expanding the pool of officials used in NCC games with Charles City expanding the conference’s boundary east.
As referenced by previously by Stewart, the NCC is open to the possibility of further conference realignment in the future.
Under the process of state mediation, conference affiliation could have been frozen for several years had the state been forced to assign Charles City to a league. Because an agreement was reached between the NCC and Charles City, there are no restrictions on teams entering or leaving the conference.
Current members of the league are Algona, Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, Clear Lake, Hampton-Dumont-CAL, Humboldt, Iowa Falls-Alden, St. Edmond, and Webster City. Stewart says the move will ultimately benefit both Charles City and the North Central Conference.
