The Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference is a high-school athletic conference with ten high schools in northern Illinois. The conference began competing during the 2010-2011 academic year. In many respects, including membership and organization, the NI-Big 12 is much like a reboot of the old North Central Illinois Conference (NCIC).Six of the schools are former members of the North Central Illinois Conference (1929-2011), and the conference is divided into two divisions, much as the NCIC was for decades. The former NCIC schools are Geneseo, LaSalle-Peru, Sterling, Ottawa, and Rochelle. Also, there are five schools that were members of the Western Sun Conference (2007-2010). The former Western Sun Schools are DeKalb, Kaneland, Sycamore, Yorkville, and Rochelle, which left the NCIC in 2007 to