Nearly four years after Carmel and Center Grove were voted out of the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference, two of the original members of the MIC are rejoining one of the preeminent high school conferences in the Midwest.
The six schools in the current MIC and the two “newcomers” made the joint announcement Thursday after the two schools have been voted back into the league by administrators from Ben Davis, Lawrence Central, Lawrence North, North Central, Pike and Warren Central.
“It just felt natural for us to be in a conference,” Center Grove superintendent Bill Long told IndyStar on Thursday. “I told our school board before, too, to get in a conference you either have to break one up or somehow make one. The odds of us creating a conference were not very good. Everybody sees what happens when you are not in a conference.”
Carmel and Center Grove would begin as full members of the MIC in 2026-27. The reunification comes after the pair were voted out of the conference in December of 2021 after applying for membership in the Hoosier Crossroads Conference (which did not vote them in).
Even before the HCC administrators voted on Carmel and Center Grove, MIC principals voted them out, sending out a statement that read, in part: “We value the historical relationships with these two communities, and while this news was sad to those of us who understand the rich history, we also understand that these two schools no longer share the vision that we are more than an athletic conference, that athletics should not drive our decisions, and that our unique characteristics are what make us strong.”
The MIC released a statement early Thursday afternoon citing the league was formed in 1996-97 to “provide a model for interscholastic excellence across academics, athletics, fine arts, and leadership. Over nearly three decades, member schools have maintained that standard, including the most recent several academic school years when MIC schools earned seven state titles while competing with only six high schools; Ben Davis, Lawrence Central, Lawrence North, North Central, Pike, and Warren Central.”
In the statement released by the MIC, Carmel administrators said, “Together, we can share expertise, expand leadership opportunities for students and staff, and build collaborative initiatives that benefit every community.” Center Grove administration added, “We believe in the power of a conference that reflects and uplifts the full range of student experiences—academic excellence, the arts, and collaboration among member schools.”
The statement concluded: “Following discussions throughout the 2024-25 school year, the current MIC members and the two returning schools reached an agreement to move forward together. The conference will again include eight high schools.”
“The MIC has always been defined by strong competition and shared expectations,” the principals said in a joint statement. “This decision positions the conference to move forward with clarity and purpose as we enter our 30th year.”
Carmel athletic director Jim Inskeep said the timing was right to get back into the MIC.
“We’re excited to be back,” said Carmel athletic director Jim Inskeep said. “The timing was right with the conference and we’re excited to build on the relationships we had before. The one thing that never changed about the MIC was a commitment to excellence and Center Grove and Carmel coming back into the fold only helps.”
Long, who started as an assistant principal at Center Grove in 1998 just two years after the conference was formed, said there have been conversations behind the scenes on getting back to the original vision of the MIC, which was based on an academic partnership along with athletics.
“Part of the reason we started the MIC was that we wanted to be more than an athletic conference,” Long said.
Since being voted out of the MIC, Carmel and Center Grove have operated as independent programs in athletics, a burden when it comes to scheduling. Center Grove played five out-of-state opponents in football to start the 2023 season. There was also a public fracture between Carmel and Center Grove in 2023, when Carmel asked to cancel future games and events in all sports with Center Grove, though that relationship has mended as the schools have started playing again in several sports; the football teams were already scheduled to play again next year in the “Copper Kettle” rivalry game after a three-year hiatus.
The scheduling issues filtered to other sports, even down to the middle school levels.
“(Not being in a conference) had a big impact on us in our football schedule, for example, and started trickling down to our middle schools,” Long said. “Last year we went to Fort Wayne to play a middle school football game. This year we are driving to Tecumseh to play a middle school football game. That’s just not really sustainable, especially with tightening budgets, to be able to travel like that. We always knew it was important for us to be in a conference and my preference was for us to get back into the MIC. I have a lot of respect for the principals, superintendents and athletic directors in the MIC and that’s where we feel we needed to be.”
The MIC was an eight-team conference of Ben Davis, Lawrence North, North Central, Warren Central, Carmel, Center Grove, Terre Haute South and Terre Haute North until 2013, when Pike and Lawrence Central moved over from Conference Indiana to replace the Terre Haute schools. It stayed that way until 2021.
Since its inception, the MIC was a powerhouse. Ben Davis, Warren Central, Center Grove and Carmel have dominated in football winning every Class 6A football title (6A started in 2013) until Brownsburg of the HCC won last year. The MIC has been traditionally strong across the board in other sports, too, though the dismissal of Center Grove and Carmel took some of the strength away from the league. The explosion in size of the suburban schools in the HCC, an eight-team conference made up of Avon, Brownsburg, Fishers, Franklin Central, Hamilton Southeastern, Noblesville, Westfield and Zionsville, has shifted the balance of power to at least even footing against the MIC.
Without entry into the HCC, Carmel (the largest school in the state with 5,200 students by the latest IHSAA enrollment numbers) and Center Grove (16th with 2,893 students) do not have a fit with another conference other than the MIC. Of the largest 14 schools in Central Indiana, all are either in the HCC or the MIC.
Long believes the realignment with the MIC should come with renewed enthusiasm about the original vision of the conference.
“What I like is in our in discussions we’ve talked about getting back to the roots of why we created the MIC in the first place,” Long said. “We did choir competitions, and our department chairs got together and worked on academics. I do think that just having the resources that availability of people to do those things together just benefits our kids so well. I like that renewed focus on academics and fine arts and collaboration. I think after a period of time, we’d gotten away from all that. We’d forgotten what our roots were and why we started the MIC in the first place.”
In football, Carmel has started nonconference games with Fishers and Westfield to open the season, both games against HCC teams from Hamilton County that have attracted big crowds. The Greyhounds have two out-of-state opponents this year — playing one on Friday at Louisville Trinity — and have continued series with North Central, Ben Davis, Warren Central and Lawrence Central in the MIC. Center Grove has four games this season against MIC opponents: Warren Central, Ben Davis, Lawrence Central and Lawrence North.
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Center Grove, Carmel voted back into MIC after 3 years in purgatory
Reporting by Kyle Neddenriep, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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