In the 2025-26 academic year, Penn won a Northern Indiana Conference (NIC) championship in 17 out of 21 sports, including every girls sport. The Kingsmen’s reported enrollment of 3,475 for the 2026-27 academic year is not just seventh in the state, but it’s 601 more students than the closest conference rival in Elkhart’s 2,874. Next is South Bend Adams’ 1,877 — nearly half the size of Penn.
Those numbers raise a question, albeit a hypothetical one: what if Penn went independent?
It would make sense, given the fact that Penn’s enrollment is the largest of any school outside of the Indianapolis area. In fact, Penn is the only non-Indianapolis area school in the IHSAA’s top 14 by enrollment. The move would allow for more competition within a conference that is about to celebrate its 100th year.
The argument could be made that Penn’s dominance raises the standard of the NIC, but let’s pretend for a minute that this alternate reality did exist. In this scenario, Penn going independent makes more sense than joining another conference like the Northern Lakes Conference (NLC) or the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC). In the case of the former, the Kingsmen’s arrival would create the same problem that exists in the NIC. For the latter, traveling nearly 90 minutes for some conference games just isn’t productive competitively or financially.
Penn leaving a conference it has called home since 1974 would have ripple effects not just across the NIC, but it could even affect other area conferences as well, such as the NLC and the Indiana Northern State Conference (INSC), among others.
What if Penn decided it was time for a new challenge? That an independent schedule made sense for itself? What other hypothetical changes could happen across the greater South Bend area? Let’s experiment some, shall we?
The only parameters set in this exercise were trying to get each new-look area conference to have an even number of members and keeping proximity in mind as much as possible. Let’s have some fun.
The new NIC
Elkhart joins Penn in its move away from the NIC, which marks the first time since 1971 that an Elkhart-based high school doesn’t call the NIC home. Prior to its 2020 merger, Central and Memorial each joined the NIC in 1972. Memorial jumped to the NLC in 2000 while Central stayed until the merger.
In this hypothetical, the Lions leave the NIC due to size (997 more students than third-largest current fellow member) and proximity. Six of the eight current NIC schools remain the same, with all four South Bend schools staying, as well as New Prairie and Marian.
The Cougars have been in the NIC since 2015. Saint Joseph and Marian joined in 2005, while Riley is the oldest current member since joining in 1931. Washington joined in 1938 while Adams did so in 1941, when each respective school opened.
Filling in for Elkhart and Penn are two former NIC members that were each in the original NIC 100 years ago: La Porte and Mishawaka. The Slicers may seem like a stretch due to its distance, but they’re in the same county as New Prairie, share many sectionals with current NIC members and have the tradition to back up their inclusion.
As for Mishawaka, many could argue the Cavemen should have never left for the NLC in 2020. They’re a St. Joseph County school, share a town with Marian and also compete in many of the same sectionals as South Bend schools.
In this new version of the NIC, Adams is the largest school while Washington is the smallest at 692. The gap of 1,185 students is way less drastic than the current NIC, and no school is classified larger than 5A or smaller than 3A.
The new NLC
With Mishawaka leaving for the NIC, who better to replace the Cavemen than Elkhart? It’s an easy switch and one that makes all the sense in the world both competitively and based on location. In this scenario, Plymouth also leaves the NLC in favor of Fairfield.
Now, six of eight NLC members are in Elkhart County apart from Warsaw and Wawasee.
The former Elkhart Memorial was in the NLC for 20 years before merging with Central in 2020, and the Lions now have a chance to catapult to the top of their new conference as the largest school in it. Warsaw trails by 885 students, and although Elkhart is the only 6A school in this new NLC, it does already share numerous sectionals with the likes of the Tigers, Northridge, Goshen and Concord in four-class sports.
With a reported 624 students, Fairfield is the new smallest school in its conference and the only one in 3A for football, but their inclusion is more than justified. Not only do the Falcons share Elkhart County with five NLC members in this scenario, but their exclusion from their current Northeast Corner Conference (NECC) brings an awkward 11 members to an even 10.
The new INSC
Let’s add two members to the Indiana Northern State Conference’s current small number of six. In football season, that means only scheduling two non-conference games rather than four.
First comes Plymouth, which leaves the NLC and can join its fellow Marshall County schools Bremen, John Glenn and the second new member, Triton. The Trojans may be the new smallest school with 275 students in this expanded INSC, but its current Hoosier North Athletic Conference (HNAC) can now host an even 10 schools while the INSC does the same.
Triton already competes in the annual boys and girls basketball Bi-County Tournament. Despite its 1A classification, the Trojans are competitive in nearly every sport, even making a state finals appearance in boys basketball this past season. Plymouth becomes the INSC’s largest school at 989 students, but a 714-student gap between it and Triton isn’t insurmountable.
In its current iteration, Plymouth is the third smallest school in the NLC and have had trouble competing with the top dogs in major sports such as football, boys and girls basketball and more. This gives it a chance to become a major conference player despite previously calling the NLC home since 1963.
Kyle Smedley is a sports reporter at the South Bend Tribune. Contact him via email at ksmedley@usatodayco.com or follow him on X @KyleMSmedley.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: A fun South Bend Tribune coverage area conference realignment | Smedley
Reporting by Kyle Smedley, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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By Kyle Smedley, South Bend Tribune | USA TODAY Network
