Across the Bay Conference

The Across the Bay Conference was formed in 2022 as part of the biannual realignment of Wisconsin's high school football conferences by the WIAA in conjunction with the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association.^[1] All eight original members (Algoma, Gibraltar, Gillett, Lena/St. Thomas Aquinas, NEW Lutheran/Oneida Nation/Providence Academy, Sevastopol, Suring and Wausaukee) were previously part of the Marinette & Oconto-Northern Lakes-Packerland Conference (MONLPC) eight-player football conference, with six of the eight members playing in the conference's East Division.^[2][3] It was originally called the Peninsula Conference because of its proximity to the Door Peninsula, a name that was previously used by an athletic conference that existed from 1933 to 1970 in northeastern Wisconsin. In 2024, the Peninsula name was dropped and the conference was rechristened the Across the Bay Conference.^[4] Wausaukee was shifted to the Northeast 8-Player Football Conference as part of the realignment.^[5]

The conference has seen some close competetion in the past with a tight game that would come to decide the conference in 2022 when the Gibraltar Vikings took down the Titans at home in a 54-50 decision. Once again in 2024 the Titans fell short of a conference title this time on the road however. The Lena/STAA (St. Thomas Aquinas Academy) Titans would fall short in a game played in Algoma on a windy October night. The Wolves would win that game 22-20 and take their first conference title since 2014. The Titans however would make a deep playoff run and represent the conference in the state championship game unfortunately losing to Owen/Withee 50-36. In 2025, the Lena/STAA Titans had no trouble however claiming there second Across the Bay conference title, picking up a key win against Algoma 24-0 in the second game of the regular season and cruising to a conference title, securing it before playing there final regular season game. The conference also saw a broader overall representation of teams this past year in the playoffs. With the new 32-team bracket in 2025 the conference saw 3 teams, Lena/St. Thomas Aquinas as a 1 seed, Sevastopol as a 3 seed, and Suring as a 6 seed. The Titans won their sectional championship, but lost in the state quarterfinal. The Pioneers won their first two games beating Suring (6 seed) and Marion/Tigerton (2 seed) but dropped their sectional final game. Besides the North Central-East 8-player conference that seen two state champions (Owen-Withee (2024), Mcdonnell Catholic Central (2025)) and two conference teams facing of in the state championship this past year in Mcdonell Catholic Central and Gilman, the Across the Bay conference is widely regarded as the second most competitive 8-player conference in all of Wisconsin.

For the 2026-27 competition cycle, the Across the Bay Conference is losing three schools (Gillett, Lena/St. Thomas Aquinas and Suring) to the Northeast 8-Player Football Conference, and the NEW Lutheran cooperative will be losing Oneida Nation to its own stand-alone football program. Two schools will be moving over from the Southeast 8-Player Football Conference (Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah and Valley Christian in Oshkosh) to replace them, and the Across the Bay will be entering into a crossover scheduling alliance with the Northeast 8-Player Football Conference.^[6]