Changing conference affiliations in Missouri continues to be a quickly evolving story, and not locally with the Grand River Conference, as two members of the soon-to-be disbanded Lewis & Clark Conference, Harrisburg High School and Fayette High School, have announced plans to join a new seven school conference.
Unlike the Lewis & Clark, where Harrisburg and Fayette were on the southern end of the nine-school conference, the new conference home for the Bulldogs and Falcons will be much more of a Mid-Missouri feel, with the five other schools named as Russellville, Eugene, New Bloomfield, Linn, and South Callaway. In addition to the Lewis & Clark, the other schools are leaving the Show-Me Conference and Eastern Missouri Conference.
Following the mid 2010’s addition of Schuyler County, Knox County, and Scotland County, the Lewis & Clark appeared to be on solid footing, with affiliation pushed to nine members. However, Schuyler County and Knox County would soon decide to move to eight-man football, followed by the same decision by Paris, adding to the scheduling challenges for the remaining 11-man members. More recently, one of the stalwart schools in the Lewis & Clark, Marceline High School, joined rival Brookfield in announcing a summer 2024 move to the Grand River Conference, with the addition of the Tigers and Bulldogs pushing the GRC to a nine-school league next year.
