Big Ten Conference
Established	1896
Association	NCAA
Division	Division I FBS
Members	12
Sports fielded	25 (men's: 12; women's: 13)
Region	Midwestern United States Mid-Atlantic United States (Penn State)
Former names	Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives Big Nine Western Conference
Headquarters	Park Ridge, Illinois
Commissioner	James Delany (since 1989)
Website	bigten.org
Locations

The Big Ten Conference (B1G), formerly Western Conference and Big Nine Conference, is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions (which are primarily flagship research universities in their respective states, well-regarded academically, and with relatively large student enrollment) are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east, and from Indiana in the south to Minnesota in the north. The conference competes in the NCAA's Division I; its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, the highest level of NCAA competition in that sport. Member schools of the Big Ten also are members of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a leading educational consortium.

Despite the conference's name, the Big Ten actually consists of twelve schools, following the addition of Pennsylvania State University in 1993 and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 2011. It is not to be confused with the Big 12 Conference, which has only ten schools and represents a different region of the country.

Members[link]

Big Ten institutions are also, along with charter member the University of Chicago, part of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, which shares a $5.6 billion research fund.

Former member[link]

• The University of Chicago was a co-founder of the conference and still maintains affiliation through the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.
• Lake Forest College attended the original 1895 meeting that led to the formation of the conference, but did not join it.

Endowments[link]

• Data provided by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund Institute as of March 12, 2012.^[18]

Membership timeline[link]

<timeline> DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:30 Period = from:1896 till:2013 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors = id:barcolor

id:line  value:pink
id:bg  value:white
         id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
         id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football
         id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only
         id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote)
         id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference
         id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two  

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bar:1  color:Full from:1896 till:1946 text:Chicago  (1896–1946)

bar:2  color:Full from:1896 till:end text:Illinois (1896–present)

bar:3  color:Full from:1896 till:1907 text:Michigan  (1896–1907, 1916–present)

bar:3  color:Full from:1916 till:end text:

bar:4  color:Full from:1896 till:end text:Minnesota  (1896–present)

bar:5  color:Full from:1896 till:end text:Northwestern (1896–present)

bar:6  color:Full from:1896 till:end text:Purdue  (1896–present)

bar:7  color:Full from:1896 till:end text:Wisconsin (1896–present)

bar:8  color:Full from:1899 till:end text:Indiana (1899–present)

bar:9  color:Full from:1899 till:end text:Iowa  (1899-present)

bar:9  color:Full from:1911 till:end text:

bar:10  color:Full from:1912 till:end text:Ohio State  (1912–present)

bar:11  color:Full from:1950 till:end text:Michigan  State (1950–present)

bar:12  color:Full from:1990 till:end text:Penn  State (1990–present)

bar:13  color:Full from:2011 till:end text:Nebraska (2011–present)

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   text:^"Big Ten Membership History"

1. > If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. Full members Full members (non-football) Assoc. members (football only) Assoc. member (list sports) Other Conference Other Conference <# </timeline>

Sports[link]

The Big Ten currently sponsors 25 sports and will be adding a 26th sport in 2013-14:^[19]

History[link]

On January 11, 1895, the presidents of University of Chicago, University of Illinois, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, Northwestern University, Purdue University and Lake Forest College met in Chicago to discuss the regulation and control of intercollegiate athletics. The eligibility of student-athletes was one of the main topics of discussion.^[21] The Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives was founded at a second meeting on February 8, 1896.^[22] Lake Forest was not at the 1896 meeting that established the conference and was replaced by the University of Michigan. At the time, the organization was more commonly known as the Western Conference, consisting of Purdue, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Chicago, and Northwestern.

The first reference to the conference as the Big Nine was in 1899 after Iowa and Indiana had joined. Nebraska first petitioned to join the league in 1900 and again in 1911,^[23] but was turned away both times. In January 1908, Michigan was voted out of the conference for failing to adhere to league rules.^[24] Ohio State was added to the conference in 1912. The first reference to the conference as the Big Ten was in November 1917 after Michigan rejoined following a nine-year absence.

Big Ten logo (1990–2011). To reflect the addition of the 11th school, Penn State, the number 11 was disguised in the negative space of the "Big Ten" lettering.

The conference was again known as the Big Nine after the University of Chicago decided to de-emphasize varsity athletics just after World War II. Chicago discontinued its football program in 1939 and withdrew from the conference in 1946 after struggling to gain victories in many conference matchups. It was believed that one of several schools, notably Pittsburgh, Nebraska, Michigan State, Marquette, Notre Dame, and Iowa State would replace Chicago at the time.^[25] On May 20, 1949,^[22] Michigan State ended the speculation by joining and the conference was again known as the Big Ten. The Big Ten's membership would remain unchanged for the next 40 years.

The conference’s official name throughout this period remained the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives. It did not formally adopt the name Big Ten until 1987, when it was incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation. In 1990, the Big Ten universities voted to expand the conference to 11 teams, and extended an invitation to Penn State, which accepted it.^[26] When Penn State joined in 1990, it was decided that the conference would continue to be called the Big Ten, but its logo was modified to reflect the change; the number 11 is disguised in the negative space of the traditionally blue "Big Ten" lettering.

Missouri had shown interest in Big Ten membership after Penn State joined.^[27] Around 1993, the league explored adding Kansas, Missouri, and Rutgers, or other potential schools, to create a 14-team league with two divisions.^[28] These talks died when the Big 8 Conference merged with former Southwest Conference members to create the Big 12.

Following the addition of previously independent Penn State, efforts were made to encourage the University of Notre Dame, the last remaining non-service academy independent, to join the league. Early in the 20th century, Notre Dame briefly considered official entry into the Big Ten but chose to maintain its independence instead.^[29] However, in 1999, both Notre Dame and the Big Ten entered into private negotiations concerning a possible membership that would include Notre Dame. Although the Notre Dame faculty senate endorsed the idea with a near unanimous vote, the ND board of trustees decided against joining the conference and Notre Dame ultimately withdrew from negotiations. [1]

In December 2009 Big Ten Conference commissioner Jim Delany announced that the league was looking to expand in what would later be part of a nationwide trend as part of the 2010–12 NCAA conference realignment.^[30] On June 11, 2010 the University of Nebraska applied for membership in the Big Ten and was unanimously approved as the conference's 12th school, which became effective July 1, 2011.^[31] The conference retained the name "Big Ten".

On September 1, Delany revealed the conference's divisional split and announced the new division names on December 13, 2010: Legends and Leaders.^[32] The new "Legends" and "Leaders" names were not met with enthusiasm. Some traditional rivals, including Northwestern and Illinois, were placed in separate divisions.^[33] For the football season, each team plays the others in its division, one "cross-over" game, and two rotating cross-divisional games.

Commissioners[link]

The office of the commissioner of athletics was created in 1922 "to study athletic problems of the various member universities and assist in enforcing the eligibility rules which govern Big Ten athletics."^[21]

Academics[link]

The Big Ten Conference is known for its academics as well as its athletics. Prior to the addition of Nebraska on July 1, 2011, it was the only Division I conference to have all its members in the Association of American Universities (AAU).^[34] Nebraska was removed from the AAU in April 2011, due to the AAU no longer allowing Nebraska to include their Medical Center in the AAU formula and the decreased weight given to agricultural research. Commissioner Jim Delany stated that Nebraska's removal from the AAU would have no bearing upon their Big Ten membership. However, Nebraska does lead the NCAA with a record of 291 Academic All-Americans (followed by Notre Dame with 221).^[35][36] Currently no Division I conference has all its members in the AAU, but a Division III conference, University Athletic Association, is composed of entirely AAU members.