Formed in 1982, the Prairieland Conference had eight original members which included; Abingdon, Bushnell-Prairie City, Cuba, Elmwood, Farmington, Knoxville, Lewistown and London Mills (Spoon River Valley). Spoon River Valley would be the first school to leave the league, joining the Inter County Athletic Conference By 1990, Elmwood began a football coop with Brimfield but remained in the league. Meanwhile, Farmington and Knoxville would leave the conference and head to the Olympic Conference being replaced with schools from Havana and Astoria, who already had established a coop with Table Grove (VIT) for football. In 1995, Peoria Heights would join the conference. Coops would continue to form as Table Grove (VIT) and Astoria would join forces in 1997 and be known as South Fulton. Also in 1997, Spoon River Valley would return to the conference from the Bi-County Conference. Rounding out the 1990s, Petersburg (PORTA) would come into the league as well as a coop with Monmouth Yorkwood and Roseville in 1999. This would give the conference 10 teams for football.
Roseville and Monmouth Warren High Schools consolidated in 2004 to become Monmouth United. This would end the coop for Roseville with Yorkwood, however, Joy Westmer took the opportunity to join forces with Yorkwood and begin their coop that same year, pulling Yorkwood out of the conference into the Lincoln Trail. Yet another coop would form in 2006 as Cuba and Spoon River Valley would join forces and become known as North Fulton. Brimfield would fully join the league in 2008, leaving the Inter County Athletic. In 2009, Petersburg (PORTA) would leave the conference for the Sangamo Conference. Prior to the 2010 school year, Beardstown and Rushville-Industry would join the league and Farmington would make their return after being gone for 20 years.[1] In 2013 Abingdon and Avon High Schools consolidated and Bushnell-Prairie City, West Prairie, North Fulton and Peoria Heights had opted to play 8-man football. Abingdon-Avon left the Prairieland and moved to the Lincoln Trail Conference in 2021.[2] Sciota West Prairie moved to the Prairieland in 2014 from the Lincoln Trail Conference. Beardstown would leave the league in 2015 for the Western Illinois Valley. In 2018, Illini West would join the Prairieland, however, it would only stay for 3 years, returning to the West Central in 2021. In that same year, Macomb would leave the West Central and join the Prairieland. In 2022, the Cuba Spoon River Valley coop would join forces with Lewistown for football.
Bushnell-PC and West Prairie coop as BWP in baseball, football, softball and track. The schools do not coop in boys basketball, girls basketball, scholastic bowl or volleyball.
Competitive Success
The Prairieland Conference has won 9 state championships in IHSA sponsored athletics and activities.[10]
