The Central State Conference was founded in 1970 during a comprehensive realignment of high school athletic conferences in central Wisconsin. Comprising small schools, eight of its ten initial members came from three conferences that disbanded after the 1969-70 school year: the Central-C Conference (Almond-Bancroft, Necedah, Port Edwards and Wild Rose), the Vacationland Conference (Tri-County) and the Wolf River Valley Conference (Bowler, Rosholt and Tigerton). Amherst and Iola-Scandinavia, formerly of the Central Wisconsin Conference, rounded out the membership roster.[1]Granton and Gresham would join the Central State Conference in 1972; Granton was previously in the Marawood Conference and Gresham competed as an independent for two years after the collapse of the Wolf River Valley Conference.[2] Granton's stay would be brief, as they would return to the Marawood Conference in 1976.[3]Shiocton moved over from the Central Wisconsin Conference in 1977 to take their place,[4] and Necedah left to become a charter member of the Scenic Bluffs Conference in 1979. They were replaced by Menominee Indian High School, who acquired their first ever conference affiliation after opening a few years earlier.[5] The Central State Conference merged with the Central Wisconsin Conference in 1984, taking the more established conference's name and ending its fourteen-year run.[6]
