The Illinois Central Eight Conference is expected to expand to 10 schools, as this week both Seneca and Sandwich’s boards of education listed agenda items to leave their current homes to join the ICE Conference beginning with the 2027-28 school year.

Seneca – which voted unanimously at Wednesday’s board meeting to join the ICE – will remain a member of the Tri-County Conference in sports other than football and wrestling next school year and compete as an independent for football and wrestling.

“We just think this is the right time to make this move,” Seneca athletic director Ted O’Boyle said Thursday morning.

Sandwich – whose administrators did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for confirmation on the move but had the item “approve membership to the Illinois Central Eight Conference for the 27-28 school year” on its May 19 meeting agenda and its future ICE membership confirmed in a Thursday afternoon social media post by Seneca High School – will play a fourth and final school year in the Kishwaukee River Conference in 2026-27 before rejoining many former conference rivals in the ICE.

When the additions take effect, the Illinois Central Eight seems likely to move to a closed schedule for football, meaning member schools’ entire regular-season schedules are filled by conference games with no nonconference contests. For other sports, nine- or 18-game conference schedules are possibilities.

Scheduling scenarios – along with a possible conference name change to reflect the increased number of schools – will be weighed this summer.

Seneca rejoins a trio of schools it co-formed the original Interstate 8 Conference with back in 1979 – Coal City, Reed-Custer and Wilmington. Sandwich joined the I-8 a half dozen years later, and all were members until the exodus of Interstate 8 member schools that ultimately led to the formation of the Illinois Central Eight.

Seneca had already committed to leave the rapidly changing Interstate 8 – a conference that has since transformed into a mid-to-large-school conference with no remaining members from its classic 1980s-2010s configuration – and join the Tri-County Conference for sports other than football and wrestling. In football and wrestling, Seneca moved to the Sangamon Valley Conference/Vermilion Valley Football Alliance until leaving to found the Chicagoland Prairie Conference alongside longtime rivals Dwight and Marquette Academy in 2023.

The Chicagoland Prairie has been dissolved due to inconsistent membership, no doubt a factor in Seneca’s decision to join the ICE. It was not, however, the only factor.

O’Boyle cited not only the additional opportunities the Illinois Central Eight offers Seneca students, but also the fact that declining enrollments at many of the current ICE schools make this a better fit than when Seneca reportedly declined an invitation in 2017 to become a founding member of the ICE Conference.

“The real reason we did this is that our administration and board of education feel that this is best for our school as a whole – not just one individual school or activity, but for all of our students. ...” O’Boyle said.

“I think it does just make more sense now [than in 2017, when Seneca’s offered spot reportedly went to Streator after Seneca refused it]. We’re very strong in a lot of activities at Seneca High School that aren’t sports-related. To give those kids opportunities, the ICE just offers a little bit more in terms of that.

“We did leave the I-8 ... but now some of the enrollments are down for schools in [the ICE], and this just seems like the right fit for us right now.”

Sandwich, along with archrival Plano as well as Westmont, was one of three Interstate 8 schools left out of conversations when the Illinois Central Eight was formed in September of 2017 to begin play during the 2019-20 school year. Left alone in the collapsing conference, Sandwich and Plano recruited the six schools that are currently I-8 members – Ottawa, La Salle-Peru, Kaneland, Morris, Sycamore and Rochelle – to join them, but then abandoned the I-8 themselves to join the Kishwaukee River Conference in 2023-24.

While Seneca will be leaving on-again, off-again conference rivals Dwight and Marquette, Sandwich’s decision to join the ICE means the Indians will not be in a conference with Plano for the first time since the mid-1980s. If the prospects of a closed, 10-team football conference prove true, in 2027 the War on 34 rivals might not meet on the football field in a season both have fielded varsity teams for the first time since 1939, according to records maintained by ReaperNation.com.

Going by current IHSA enrollment figures, Sandwich would become the third largest member of the Illinois Central Eight, fitting between Coal City and Manteno. Seneca would be the smallest member by enrollment, just three students smaller than the current smallest member, Reed-Custer.

2025-26 IHSA enrollment figures for the 10 schools were: Streator 742, Coal City 640, Sandwich 544, Manteno 538, Herscher 516, Lisle 421, Peotone 410, Wilmington 400, Reed-Custer 375 and Seneca 372.