All of the members are major public high schools in Fresno County, California.

The Tri-River Athletic Conference was formed before the 1996-97 school year when the Central Section broke up the Northeast and Northwest Yosemite Leagues, in large part due to Fresno Unified schools not being able to compete with the Clovis Unified juggernaut.

For two seasons (2002 and 2003), the TRAC was split up into two separate conferences, the Tri-River and Tri-City.

Meanwhile, the Tri-City was made up by Buchanan, Bullard, Clovis West, and Madera.

A championship can be shared by multiple teams, commonly referred to as a co-championship, if they have the same league record at the end of the regular season.