The Saginaw Valley High School Association (commonly referred to as the Saginaw Valley League ) is a high school sports league formed in 1904 within the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA), located in the Bay , Genesee , Isabella , Lapeer , Midland , and Saginaw counties in Michigan area.
7-666: SVL was formed in the fall of 1904 with five teams: Bay City Eastern (Bay City Central), Bay City Handy (Bay City Western), Saginaw Eastern (Saginaw High), Arthur Hill, and Flint High (Flint Central). In August 2012, the final four teams of the Big Nine Conference , Carman-Ainsworth, Davison, Flint Powers Catholic and Flushing, joined the league in its South Division. With the Flint Metro League losing Lapeer East and Lapeer West, Flushing and Carman-Ainsworth applied to join that league with Flushing's membership approved starting in
14-670: A merger. As a result of that and Kearsley's interest back in 2005–2006, a membership invitation was extended to Kearsley. In 2007, Owosso left for the Capital Area Activities Conference - Red. Grand Blanc Schools moved to the Kensington Lakes Activities Association starting in the 2009–2010 season. In August 2011, the remaining Big Nine members applied together to join the Saginaw Valley League and were accepted to join starting in
21-714: The Big Eight Conference , was a high school sports conference in Genesee County, Michigan , that ended with four high schools in 2012. Formed in 1960 as the Big Eight Conference, the conference became the Big Nine Conference in 1962 with the addition of Mt. Morris High School . Ainsworth High School left in 1968, and Mt. Morris left in 1972. Powers Catholic High School joined in 1974. In 1976, Carman High School and Swartz Creek High School were added from
28-556: The Flint Metro League , giving the conference its peak membership of 10. Due to the collegiate Big Ten Conference , the conference's name remained the Big Nine Conference. Membership in the Big Nine remained stable for the next 21 years, with only the newly merged Carman-Ainsworth taking Carman's place in the conference in 1986. Owosso High School left in 1997 for the Mid-Michigan Athletic Conference - A. Beecher left
35-483: The 2012–2013 school year, forming Saginaw Valley's southern division with the other Flint City District High Schools. The conference had 13 different members over the course of its history. Of the 11 existing former members, four are in the Flint Metro League , three are in the Saginaw Valley League , two are in the Genesee Area Conference , one is in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association , and one
42-694: The 2014-15 year. Bay City John Glenn joined in 2017, but left in 2020. Grand Blanc joined in 2018. Starting in 2021, Saginaw and Saginaw Arthur Hill formed a co-op team football in preparation of a high school merger. Traverse City Central and Traverse City West announced they would be joining the Red Division in 2022 as football-only members. The Saginaw Valley League currently has 14 member schools. Carman-Ainsworth (5-5) Jerry Parker HH Dow (7-4) Mt. Pleasant (7-3) Jason Watkins Jason MacIntyre Midland High (10-2) Eric Methner DAV Big Nine Conference The Big Nine Conference , formerly
49-550: The league after the 2002 season. In 2003, the Owosso Trojans returned to the league after the Mid-Michigan Athletic Conference - A dispersed. Clio in 2005 and Swartz Creek in 2006 moved to the Flint Metro League as the conference was perceived as being overpowering to those schools. In 2006, the entire Big Nine Conference and Flint Northwestern applied for membership in the Flint Metro League to encourage discussion on
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