Little Seven Conference (Michigan)


The Little Seven Conference is a former high school athletic conference with most of its membership based in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was founded in 1949 and disbanded in 1968. Most of the conference's member schools belonged to the Michigan High School Athletic Association, except two members who were affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.

History

Originally named the Little Six Conference, the loop was formed in 1949 by six small high schools: five in Michigan's upper peninsula and one just across the Brule River in northern Wisconsin. Powers-Spalding joined the conference from the Central UP League in 1951, bringing membership to seven schools and giving the circuit its longest-running moniker of the Big Seven Conference. Membership remained stable over the next decade before the conference expanded to eight schools in 1961 with the addition of Carney. With the additional member came a change in name to the Big Eight Conference, and when a ninth member school was added in 1963, another name change to the Big Nine Conference accompanied their entry. Like the previous name changes, this one was short-lived, and the Big Nine Conference lost Florence to the WIAA-affiliated Northern Lakes Conference and Vulcan to consolidation with Norway. The conference's name was changed to the Big Seven Conference with the loss of two members. Alpha left the conference when it closed in 1967 after merging with Crystal Falls to create the Forest Park district. The conference, now called the Big Six Conference due to Alpha's closing, played for one more season before disbanding in 1968. The six remaining schools joined with three members of the shuttered Mid-Peninsula Conference to form the new Skyline Conference. By 1971, all of the former conference's Michigan-based members were lost to rural school district consolidation.

Membership timeline


DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1949 till:1968
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5
Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
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width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:m
bar:1 color:tan1 from:1949 till:1967 text:Alpha
bar:2 color:tan1 from:1949 till:1968 text:Channing
bar:3 color:tan1 from:1949 till:1968 text:Felch
bar:4 color:tan1 from:1949 till:1964 text:Florence
bar:5 color:tan1 from:1949 till:1968 text:Hermansville
bar:6 color:tan1 from:1949 till:1964 text:Vulcan
bar:7 color:tan1 from:1951 till:1968 text:Powers-Spalding
bar:8 color:tan1 from:1961 till:1968 text:Carney
bar:9 color:tan1 from:1963 till:1968 text:Pembine
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1949

List of state champions

Fall sports

SchoolYearOrganizationDivision
Alpha1965MHSAAClass C-D