The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate
athletic conference
An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Con ...
in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1896, it predates the founding of its regulating organization, the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...
. It is based in the Chicago area in
Rosemont, Illinois
Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Located immediately northwest of Chicago, as of the 2010 census it had a population of 4,202. The village was incorporated in 1956, though it had been settled long before that. Whi ...
. For many decades the conference consisted of 10 universities, and it has 14 members and 2 affiliate institutions.
The conference competes in the
NCAA Division I
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...
and its
football teams compete in the
Football Bowl Subdivision
The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). A ...
(FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, the highest level of NCAA competition in that sport.
Big Ten member institutions are major
research universities with large financial endowments and strong academic reputations. Large student enrollment is a hallmark of its universities, as 12 of the 14 members enroll more than 30,000 students. They are largely
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* '' Our ...
public universities; founding member
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Chart ...
is the lone
private university
Private universities and private colleges are institutions of higher education, not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. They may (and often do) receive from governments tax breaks, public student loans, and grant (money ...
in the Big Ten. Collectively, Big Ten universities educate more than 520,000 total students and have 5.7 million living alumni.
The members engage in $9.3 billion in funded research each year;
13 out of 14 are members of the
Association of American Universities
The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an organization of American research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education. Founded in 1900, it consists of 63 universities in the United States ...
and all are members of the
Universities Research Association (URA). Some Big Ten universities are also members of the
Big Ten Academic Alliance
The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), formerly the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), is the academic consortium of the universities in the Big Ten Conference. The consortium was renamed on June 29, 2016.
Member universities
The B ...
, formerly the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.
Though the Big Ten existed for nearly a century as an assemblage of universities in the
Midwest, the conference's geographic footprint now stretches from the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...
to the
Great Plains and in 2024 will extend to the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
. The conference has maintained its historic name, while expanding to 14 members and 2 affiliate members.
Member schools
Current members
;Notes:
Future members
On June 30, 2022,
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...
(UCLA) and the
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $8. ...
(USC) announced plans to withdraw from the
Pac-12 Conference
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...
to join the Big Ten in 2024 as full members.
Associate members
;Notes:
Former member
;Notes:
Membership timeline
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1896 till:2036
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(0.78,0.391,0.654) # 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
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:Full from:1896 till:end text:Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...
(1896–present)
bar:2 color:Full from:1896 till:end text:Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...
(1896–present)
bar:3 color:Full from:1896 till:end text: Northwestern (1896–present)
bar:4 color:Full from:1896 till:end text: Purdue (1896–present)
bar:5 color:Full from:1896 till:end text:Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
(1896–present)
bar:6 color:Full from:1896 till:1907 text:Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
(1896–1907; 1917–present)
bar:6 color:Full from:1917 till:end
bar:7 color:Full from:1896 till:1940 text:Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
(1896–1946)
bar:7 color:FullxF from:1940 till:1946 text:
bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1946 till:1976 text:Independent
bar:7 color:OtherC2 from:1976 till:1986 text: MWC
bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1986 till:end text: UAA
bar:8 color:FullxF from:1899 till:1900 text:Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...
(1899–present)
bar:8 color:Full from:1900 till:end
bar:9 color:FullxF from:1899 till:1900 text:Iowa
Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...
(1899–present)
bar:9 color:Full from:1900 till:end
bar:10 color:Full from:1912 till:end text: Ohio State (1912–present)
bar:11 color:FullxF from:1950 till:1953 text:Michigan State
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It ...
(1950–present)
bar:11 color:Full from:1953 till:end
bar:12 color:FullxF from:1990 till:1993 text: Penn State (1990–present)
bar:12 color:Full from:1993 till:end
bar:13 shift:(-60) color:Full from:2011 till:end text:Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the so ...
(2011–present)
bar:14 shift:(-60) color:Full from:2014 till:end text:Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...
(2014–present)
bar:15 shift:(-60) color:Full from:2014 till:end text: Rutgers (2014–present)
bar:16 shift:(-60) color:AssocOS from:2014 till:end text:Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland where he remained for most ...
(2014–present)
bar:17 shift:(-60) color:AssocOS from:2017 till:end text:Notre Dame
Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to:
* Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France
* University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States
** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...
(2017–present)
bar:18 shift:(-60) color:Full from:2024 till:end text:UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...
(2024–future)
bar:19 shift:(-60) color:Full from:2024 till:end text: USC (2024–future)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:10 start:1900
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pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center)
text:^"Big Ten Conference membership history"
#> 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. <#
Sports
The Big Ten Conference sponsors championship competition in 14 men's and 14 women's NCAA sanctioned sports.
Men's sponsored sports by school
Notes:
* Notre Dame joined the Big Ten in the 2017–18 school year as an affiliate member in men's ice hockey. It continues to field its other sports in the ACC except in football where it will continue to compete as an independent.
° Johns Hopkins joined the Big Ten in 2014 as an affiliate member in men's lacrosse, with women's lacrosse following in 2016. It continues to field its other sports in the
NCAA Division III Centennial Conference
The Centennial Conference is an athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Member teams are located in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Eleven private colleges compose the Centennial Conference. Five of ten members of the Centenn ...
.
[Big Ten Announces Institution of Men's and Women's Lacrosse and Addition of Johns Hopkins as Men's Lacrosse Sport Affiliate Member – BIG TEN CONFERENCE Official Athletic Site](_blank)
. Bigten.org (June 3, 2013). Retrieved on 2013-08-17.
Women's sponsored sports by school
;Notes
Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Big Ten Conference that are played by Big Ten schools
History
In an initiative led by Purdue University President James Henry Smart,
the presidents of the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
,
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...
,
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
,
University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
,
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Chart ...
,
Purdue University
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...
and
Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducational since 1876 and an undergraduate-focused liberal arts ins ...
met in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
on January 11, 1895, to discuss the regulation and control of intercollegiate athletics. The eligibility of student-athletes was one of the main topics of discussion.
The Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives was founded at a second meeting on February 8, 1896.
Lake Forest was not at the 1896 meeting and was replaced by the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
. At the time, the organization was more commonly known as the Western Conference, consisting of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Chicago, Purdue, and Northwestern.
The first reference to the conference as the Big Nine was in 1899 after
Iowa
Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...
and
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...
had joined.
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the so ...
first petitioned to join the league in 1900 and again in 1911,
but was turned away both times. In April 1907,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
was voted out of the conference for refusing to adhere to league rules limiting football teams to no more than five games and players to three years of eligibility.
Ohio State was added to the conference in 1912. The first known references to the conference as the Big Ten were in December 1916, when Michigan rejoined the conference after a nine-year absence.
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. In 1939 UChicago President Robert Maynard Hutchins made the decision to abolish the football program, based on his negative views of big-time college football’s excesses and associated problems of the time. and withdrew from the conference in 1946 after struggling to obtain victories in many conference matchups. It was believed that one of several schools, notably
Iowa State,
Marquette,
Michigan State
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It ...
,
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the so ...
,
Notre Dame
Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to:
* Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France
* University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States
** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...
, and
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
would replace Chicago at the time. On May 20, 1949,
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.
Early history
As intercollegiate football rapidly increased during the 1890s, so did the ruthless nature of the game. Tempers flared, fights erupted, and injuries soared. Between 1880 and 1905, college football players suffered more than 325 deaths and 1,149 injuries. To deal with mounting criticism of the game, President
James H. Smart
James Henry Smart (June 30, 1841 – February 21, 1900) was an American educator and administrator who served as the fourth president of Purdue University from August 23, 1883, until his death in 1900. An initiative of his led to the founding of ...
of
Purdue University
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...
invited representatives from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
,
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Unive ...
,
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
,
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
,
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Chart ...
, and
University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
to a Chicago meeting to create policies aimed at regulating intercollegiate athletics. These schools were the original seven members. In 1899,
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
* Indiana Univers ...
and the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 coll ...
joined the conference to increase the membership to nine schools.
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pu ...
joined in 1912 and
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
joined in 1948. In 1905, the conference was officially incorporated as the "Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives".
The conference is one of the nation's oldest, predating the founding of the NCAA by a decade and was one of the first collegiate conferences to sponsor men's basketball. The
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association
The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) was one of the first collegiate athletic conferences in the United States. Twenty-seven of the current Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A) football programs were members of this conferen ...
was also established in 1895; its successor, the
Southern Conference
The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Southern Conference College football, football teams c ...
, eventually spawned the
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...
and the
Atlantic Coast Conference.
1990 expansion: Penn State
In 1990, the Big Ten universities voted to expand the conference to 11 teams and extended an invitation to Atlantic 10 member and football independent
Pennsylvania State University, which accepted it. When Penn State joined in 1990, it was decided the conference would continue to be called the Big Ten, but its
logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordm ...
was modified to reflect the change; the number 11 was disguised in the
negative space of the traditionally blue "Big Ten" lettering.
Missouri showed interest in Big Ten membership after Penn State joined. Around 1993, the league explored adding
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to ...
,
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
and Rutgers or other potential schools, to create a 14-team league with two football divisions. These talks died when the
Big Eight Conference
The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associat ...
merged with former
Southwest Conference
The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma ...
members to create the
Big 12.
Following the addition of Penn State, efforts were made to encourage the
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...
, at that time the last remaining non-
service academy independent, to join the league. In 1999, Notre Dame and the Big Ten entered into private negotiations concerning a possible membership that would include Notre Dame. Although Notre Dame's faculty senate endorsed the idea with a near-unanimous vote, the school's board of trustees decided against joining the conference. (In 1926, Notre Dame had briefly considered official entry into the Big Ten but chose to retain its independent status.) Notre Dame subsequently joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in all sports except football, in which Notre Dame maintains its independent status as long as it plays at least five games per season against ACC opponents. This was believed to be the major stumbling block to Notre Dame joining the Big Ten, as Notre Dame wanted to retain its independent
home game broadcasting contract with
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and it ...
, while the Big Ten insisted upon a full membership with no special exemptions.
2010–2014 expansion: Nebraska, Maryland, Rutgers
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
2010–2014 NCAA conference realignment
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
.
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. The conference retained the name "Big Ten". This briefly led to the interesting and ironic result of the Big Ten consisting of twelve teams, and the Big 12 consisting of ten teams (with fellow former Big 12 member
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
's move to the
Pac-12 Conference
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...
).
Legends and Leaders divisions
On September 1, 2010, Delany revealed the conference's football divisional split, but noted that the division names would be announced later. Those division names, as well as the conference's new logo, were made public on December 13, 2010. For its new logo, the conference replaced the "hidden 11" logo with one that uses the "B1G" character combination in its branding. Delany did not comment on the logo that day, but it was immediately evident that the new logo would "allow fans to see 'BIG' and '10' in a single word."
For the new football division names, the Big Ten was unable to use geographic names, because they had rejected a geographic arrangement. Delany announced that the new divisions would be known as the "Legends Division" and "Leaders Division". In the Legends division were Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Northwestern. The Leaders division was composed of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin. Conference officials stated they had focused on creating competitive fairness rather than splitting by geographical location. However, the new "Legends" and "Leaders" divisions were not met with enthusiasm. Some traditional rivals, including Ohio State and Michigan, were placed in separate divisions.
For the football season, each team played the others in its division, one "cross-over" rivalry game, and two rotating cross-divisional games. At the end of the regular season the two division winners met in a new
Big Ten Football Championship Game. The Legends and Leaders divisional alignment was in effect for the
2011,
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
and
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...
football seasons.
West and East divisions
On November 19, 2012, the University of Maryland's Board of Regents voted to withdraw from the
ACC and join the Big Ten as its 13th member effective on July 1, 2014. The Big Ten's Council of Presidents approved the move later that day. One day later, Rutgers University of the
Big East also accepted an offer for membership from the Big Ten as its 14th member school.
On April 28, 2013, the Big Ten presidents and chancellors unanimously approved a football divisional realignment that went into effect when Maryland and Rutgers joined in 2014.
Under the new plan, the Legends and Leaders divisions were replaced with geographic divisions.
The West Division includes Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin (of which all but Purdue are in the
Central Time Zone
The North American Central Time Zone (CT) is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
Central Standard Time (CST) is six hours behind Coordina ...
), while the East Division includes Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers (all of which are in the
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a sma ...
). The final issue in determining the new divisions was which of the two Indiana schools would be sent to the West; Purdue was chosen because its
West Lafayette
West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister city ...
campus is geographically west of Indiana's home city of
Bloomington.
In the current divisional alignment, the only permanently protected cross-divisional rivalry game in football is
Indiana–Purdue.
As before, the two division winners play each other in the Big Ten Football Championship Game.
On June 3, 2013, the Big Ten announced the sponsorship of men's and women's lacrosse. For any conference to qualify for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, at least six member schools must play the sport. In women's lacrosse, the addition of Maryland and Rutgers to the Big Ten brought the conference up to the requisite six participants, joining programs at Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State and Penn State.
In men's lacrosse, Ohio State and Penn State were the only existing participants. Coincident with the addition of Maryland and Rutgers, Michigan agreed to upgrade its successful club team to varsity status, giving the Big Ten five sponsoring schools, one short of the minimum six for an automatic bid.
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...
opted to join the conference as its first affiliate member beginning in 2014. Johns Hopkins had been independent in men's lacrosse for 130 years, claiming 44 national championships.
As long-time independents joined conferences (for example, Syracuse joining the Atlantic Coast Conference), other schools competing as independents in some cases concluded that the inability to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament was becoming a more serious competitive disadvantage in scheduling and recruiting.
On March 23, 2016, the Big Ten Conference and Notre Dame announced the
Fighting Irish would become a men's ice hockey affiliate beginning with the 2017–18 season. Notre Dame had been a member of
Hockey East, and the move saves travel time and renews rivalries with former
CCHA and
WCHA members.
In 2012, the conference announced it would move its headquarters from its location in
Park Ridge, Illinois
Park Ridge is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, and a Chicago suburb. Per the 2020 census, the population was 39,656. It is located northwest of downtown Chicago. It is close to O'Hare International Airport, major expressways, a ...
to neighboring
Rosemont Rosemont may refer to:
* Rosemont (horse), an American Thoroughbred racehorse
* ''Rosemont'', a 2015 film Places
In Australia
* Rosemont (Woollahra), located in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra and listed on the NSW State Heritage Register
In Canada ...
by the end of 2013. The current office building is situated within Rosemont's MB Financial Entertainment District, alongside
Interstate 294. The move into the building was finalized on October 14, 2013.
UCLA and USC, future expansion
On June 30, 2022,
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...
and
USC announced that they will be joining the Big Ten Conference effective August 2, 2024, enabling both schools to remain in the
Pac-12 Conference
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...
for the duration of the Pac-12's existing media rights agreements.
The expansion delayed the announcement of a new media deal, which would eventually be unveiled at $7 billion, with the potential to grow to $10 billion. This deal ended the conference's long-running partnership with ESPN/ABC and specifically states how much more money each broadcaster would pay if Notre Dame (and Notre Dame alone) were to join.
Commissioners
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."
All Big Ten members are members of the
Big Ten Academic Alliance
The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), formerly the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), is the academic consortium of the universities in the Big Ten Conference. The consortium was renamed on June 29, 2016.
Member universities
The B ...
, formerly known as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. The
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
, a former Big Ten Conference member, was a member of the CIC from 1958 to June 29, 2016.
Schools ranked by revenue
The schools below are listed by conference rank of total revenue. Total revenue includes ticket sales, contributions and donations, rights/licensing, student fees, school funds and all other sources including TV income, camp income, food and novelties. Total expenses includes coaching/staff, scholarships, buildings/ground, maintenance, utilities and rental fees and all other costs including recruiting, team travel, equipment and uniforms, conference dues and insurance costs. Surplus (or deficit) is calculated using the total revenue and total expenses data provided by ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virg ...
'', individual institutions and the
United States Department of Education
The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Departme ...
.
Television and media rights
For the 2007 season, the Big Ten negotiated a ten-year television deal with
ABC/
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
for tier-1 football media rights. The men's basketball rights were earned by
CBS. The conference also joined with
Fox Sports to form the
Big Ten Network which would air multiple sports, including football. In 2016, the conference negotiated a six-year deal which made Fox the primary football rights holder and guaranteed the network the football Championship game. ABC/ESPN secured the rights for a significant amount of additional games and CBS retained the rights to top-tier men's basketball rights and Fox earned the right to air several basketball games as well. In total, the rights earned the conference more than $2.6 billion.
On August 18, 2022, the Big Ten announced a media rights deal with Fox, CBS,
NBC and
Peacock. The deal is reportedly worth more than $7 billion per year, which is estimated to bring $80–$100 million per year to each member school. Fox/FS1 earned the tier-1 rights which included 24–27 football games in 2023–24, then 30–32 games for the remainder of the contract. It also earned the right to air four of the seven Big Ten championship games during the contract. The network will also broadcast 45 men’s basketball games in ’23–24 and at least that many in the years thereafter. The Big Ten Network also will continue to air up to 50 football games per year and a minimum of 126 men's basketball games. The primary timeslot for Fox College Football will be Noon,
Eastern Time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...
.
NBC earned the rights to air 16 football games in 2023, then 14–15 after. Peacock will air eight football games and up to 47 men's basketball games and 30 women's basketball games. The primary slot for football was announced as the
Prime time
Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
block. NBC will also air one football championship game. CBS will air seven football games during the 2023–24 season, and then increase to 14 to 15 per year. Additionally, CBS will air two football title games. The main timeslot will be 3:30pm. Eastern Time. The network will maintain the rights to several basketball games including the final rounds of the men's and women's tournaments. For the first time in 40 years, ESPN did not earn the rights to air any conference sporting events. However, commissioner Kevin Warren stated that the conference remains open to negotiating smaller deals with the network in the future.
Awards and honors
Big Ten Athlete of the Year
The
Big Ten Athlete of the Year award is given annually to the athletes voted as the top male and female athlete in the Big Ten Conference.
Big Ten Medal of Honor
Big Ten Medal of Honor (annual; at each school; one male
scholar-athlete and one female scholar-athlete)
* Big Ten Sportsmanship Award (annual; at each school; one male
student-athlete and one female student-athlete)
NACDA Learfield Sports Directors' Cup rankings
The
NACDA Learfield Sports Directors' Cup is an annual award given by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the U.S. colleges and universities with the most success in collegiate athletics. Big Ten universities typically finish ranked in the top-50 of the final Directors' Cup annual rankings.
2021–22 Capital One Cup standings
The
Capital One Cup is an award given annually to the best men's and women's Division I college athletics programs in the United States. Points are earned throughout the year based on final standings of NCAA Championships and final coaches' poll rankings.
Conference records
For Big Ten records, by sport (not including football), see footnote
NCAA national titles
Totals are per NCAA annual list published every July
and NCAA-published gymnastics history,
with subsequent results as of June 30, 2021, obtained from
NCAA.org', which provides intermittent updates throughout the year.
Excluded from this list are all national championships earned
outside the scope of NCAA competition, including
Division I FBS football titles, women's
AIAW championships (17) and retroactive
Helms Athletic Foundation titles.
See also:
List of NCAA schools with the most NCAA Division I championships and
List of NCAA schools with the most Division I national championships
Conference titles
For Big Ten championships, by year, see footnote. Totals do not include Big Ten tournament championships.
# Johns Hopkins was added in 2014 as an associate member that competed in men's lacrosse only. Johns Hopkins also began competing as an associate member in women's lacrosse in the 2016–17 school year.
# Maryland won 196 conference championships as a member of the
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), second most in ACC history.
# Nebraska won 80 conference championships as a member of the
Big 12 Conference, second most in Big 12 history. Nebraska also won 230 conference championships as a member of the
Big Eight Conference
The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associat ...
, the most in Big Eight history.
# Notre Dame was added in 2017 as an associate member that competed in men's ice hockey only.
# Penn State won or shared 70 conference championships as a member of the
Atlantic 10 Conference (1982–91) and earlier when it was known as the Eastern 8 Conference (1976–79).
# Rutgers won six conference championships as a member of the Middle Three Conference, the
Middle Atlantic Conference, the
Atlantic 10 Conference, the
original Big East Conference, and both of its offshoots, the current non-football
Big East Conference and the
American Athletic Conference
The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA ...
.
# Chicago won 73 conference championships as a member of the Big Ten from 1896 to 1946.
Current champions
‡ Denotes national champion
Football
When Maryland and Rutgers joined the Big Ten in 2014, the division names were changed to "East" and "West", with Purdue and the six schools in the Central Time Zone in the West and Indiana joining the remaining six
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a sma ...
schools in the East. The only protected cross-division game is Indiana–Purdue. Beginning in 2016, the Big Ten adopted a nine-game conference schedule.
All teams have one cross-division opponent they play annually that changes every six years except for Indiana and Purdue, whose crossover is permanent. The other six opponents are played every three years during that cycle. For 2016–2021, the pairings are Maryland-Minnesota, Michigan-Wisconsin, Michigan State-Northwestern, Ohio State-Nebraska, Penn State-Iowa, and Rutgers-Illinois, and for 2022-2027 the pairings are Maryland-Northwestern, Michigan-Nebraska, Michigan State-Minnesota, Ohio State-Wisconsin, Penn State-Illinois, and Rutgers-Iowa. In 2016, the Big Ten no longer allowed its members to play
Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) teams and also requires at least one non-conference game against a school in the
Power Five conferences (
ACC,
Big 12,
Pac-12,
SEC). Contracts for future games already scheduled against FCS teams would be honored. However, in 2017, the Big Ten started to allow teams to schedule an FCS opponent during years in which they only have four conference home games (odd-numbered years for East division teams, even-numbered years for West division teams). At the time this policy was first announced, games against
FBS independents
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Football Bowl Subdivision independent schools are four-year institutions whose football programs are not part of an NCAA-affiliated conference. This means that FBS independents are not required to sc ...
Notre Dame
Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to:
* Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France
* University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States
** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...
and
BYU would automatically count toward the Power Five requirement.
ESPN, citing a Big Ten executive, reported in 2015 that the Big Ten would allow exceptions to the Power Five rule on a case-by-case basis, and also that the other FBS independent at that time,
Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
, had been added to the list of non-Power Five schools that would automatically be counted as Power Five opponents.
All-time school records
This list goes through the 2021 season.
Future conference members in gray.
† Ohio State vacated 12 wins and its Big Ten title in 2010 due to NCAA sanctions.
†† Numbers of division and conference championships shown reflect Big Ten history only and do not include division and conference championships in former conferences. USC and UCLA join the Big Ten in 2024, Maryland and Rutgers joined in 2014, and Nebraska joined in 2011.
Number of Claimed National Championships, as well as win–loss–tie records, include all seasons played, regardless of conference membership.
Big Ten Conference champions
Bowl games
Since 1946, the Big Ten champion has had a tie-in with the
Rose Bowl game
The Rose Bowl Game is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 (New Year's Day) at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2. The Ro ...
. Michigan appeared in the first
bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...
, the
1902 Rose Bowl. After that, the Big Ten did not allow their schools to participate in bowl games, until the agreement struck with the Pacific Coast Conference for the
1947 Rose Bowl
The 1947 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game. It was the 33rd Rose Bowl Game. The Illinois Fighting Illini defeated the UCLA Bruins, 45–14. Illinois halfbacks Buddy Young and Jules Rykovich shared the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game awa ...
. From 1946 through 1971, the Big Ten did not allow the same team to represent the conference in consecutive years in the Rose Bowl with an exception made after the 1961 season in which Minnesota played in the
1962 Rose Bowl
The 1962 Rose Bowl, played on January 1, 1962, was the 48th Rose Bowl Game. The Minnesota Golden Gophers defeated the UCLA Bruins, 21–3.
Big Ten Conference champion Ohio State declined the invitation to play in the Rose Bowl. Days after the co ...
after playing in the
1961 Rose Bowl
The 1961 Rose Bowl was the 47th Rose Bowl game, played on January 2, 1961, in Pasadena, California. The #6 Washington Huskies defeated the top-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers, 17–7. Washington quarterback Bob Schloredt returned from a mid-season ...
due to Ohio State declining the bid because of Ohio State faculty concerns about academics.
It was not until the 1975 season that the Big Ten allowed teams to play in bowl games other than the Rose Bowl. Michigan, which had been shut out of the postseason the previous three years, was the first beneficiary of the new rule when it played in the Orange Bowl vs. Oklahoma. Due to the pre-1975 rules, Big Ten teams such as Michigan and Ohio State have lower numbers of all-time bowl appearances than powerhouse teams from the
Big 12 Conference (previously Big Eight and Southwest Conferences) and
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...
, which always placed multiple teams in bowl games every year.
Since the 2020–21 season, a new slate of bowl game selections has included several new bowl games.
* If the conference champion is picked for the
College Football Playoff in years the Rose Bowl does not host a semifinal, the next highest ranked team in the committee rankings, or runner up, shall take its place at the Rose Bowl.
^ The Big Ten, along with the SEC, will be eligible to face the ACC representative in the Orange Bowl at least three out of the eight seasons that it does not host a semifinal for the Playoff over a 12-year span. Notre Dame will be chosen the other two years if eligible.
† The Big Ten will switch between the Las Vegas Bowl and Duke's Mayo Bowl on odd and even years, respectively.
Bowl selection procedures
Although the pick order usually corresponds to the conference standings, the bowls are not required to make their choices strictly according to the win–loss records; many factors influence bowl selections, especially the likely turnout of the team's fans. Picks are made after CFP selections; the bowl with the #2 pick will have the first pick of the remaining teams in the conference.
For all non-College Football Playoff partners, the bowl partner will request a Big Ten team. The Big Ten will approve or assign another team based on internal selection parameters.
When not hosting a semifinal, the Orange Bowl will select the highest-ranked team from the Big Ten, SEC or Notre Dame to face an ACC opponent. (However, in an 8-game cycle
2 years due to not counting when the Orange Bowl is a semifinal the Big Ten must be selected at least three times and no more than four times; the SEC similarly will be selected between three and four times while Notre Dame may be selected up to two times.) The Big Ten Champion cannot play in the Orange Bowl. If a Big Ten team is not selected by the Orange Bowl, the Citrus Bowl will submit a request for a Big Ten team.
Head coach compensation
Guaranteed compensation is due to the coaches regardless of performance. Though most of the pay is directed from the university, some also comes in the form of guaranteed endorsements and other income streams. Most coaches also have performance-based bonuses that can significantly raise their salaries.
Two Big Ten member schools—Northwestern, a private institution, and Penn State, exempt from most open records laws due to its status as what Pennsylvania calls a "
state-related" institution—are not obligated to provide salary information for their head coaches, but choose to do so.
Marching bands
All Big Ten member schools have
marching band
A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, ...
s which perform regularly during the football season. Ten of fourteen member schools have won the
Sudler Trophy,
generally considered the most prestigious honor a collegiate marching band can receive.
[
* ] The first three Sudler trophies were awarded to Big Ten marching bands—
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
(1982),
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...
(1983) and
Ohio State (1984).
The Big Ten also has more Sudler Trophy recipients than any other collegiate athletic conference.
Conference individual honors
Coaches and media of the Big Ten Conference award individual honors at the end of each football season.
Men's basketball
The Big Ten has participated in basketball since 1904, and has led the nation in attendance every season since 1978. It has been a national powerhouse in
men's basketball, having multiple championship winners and often sending four or more teams to the
NCAA men's basketball tournament. Previous NCAA champions include Indiana with five titles, Michigan State with two, and Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio State with one each. Maryland, which joined the Big Ten in 2014, won one NCAA championship as a member of the
ACC. Ohio State played in the first NCAA tournament national championship game in 1939, losing to Oregon. Despite this, Jimmy Hull of Ohio State was the first NCAA tournament MVP. The first three tournament MVPs came from the Big Ten (Marv Huffman of Indiana in 1940 and John Katz of Wisconsin in 1941).
Big Ten teams have also experienced success in the postseason
NIT. Since 1974, 13 Big Ten teams have played in the championship game, winning nine championships. Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and Minnesota have won two NIT championships, while Indiana and Purdue have won one each. Two other current members, Maryland and Nebraska, won NIT titles before they joined the Big Ten. In addition, in 1943 the defunct
Helms Athletic Foundation retrospectively awarded national titles to Northwestern for 1931 and Purdue for 1932; then in 1957, it selected Illinois for 1915, Minnesota for 1902 and 1919, and Wisconsin for 1912, 1914 and 1916.
Former member Chicago won a post-season national championship series in 1908.
Since 1999, the Big Ten has taken part in the
ACC–Big Ten Challenge with the
Atlantic Coast Conference. The ACC holds an 11–5–2 record against the Big Ten; Minnesota, Nebraska, Penn State, Purdue, and Wisconsin are the only Big Ten schools without losing records in the challenge.
All-time school records
This list goes through March 1, 2022 and is listed by win percentage in NCAA Division I men's college basketball.
Future members in gray.
† Minnesota vacated its 1997 Big Ten Conference regular season title, Michigan vacated its 1998 Big Ten tournament title, and Ohio State vacated its 2002 Big Ten tournament, as well as 2000 and 2002 regular season titles, due to NCAA sanctions.
National championships, Final Fours, and NCAA tournament appearances
Big Ten Conference basketball programs have combined to win 10 NCAA men's basketball championships as Big Ten members, with another current member having won a national championship before joining the conference. Indiana has won five, Michigan State has won two, while Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin have won one national championship each as Big Ten members. Maryland won one national championship while a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Future member UCLA has won 11 national championships, matching the total of all current Big Ten members. Of the 14 current conference members, 11 have advanced to the Final Four at least once in their history, and both future members have also done so. Nine Big Ten schools (Indiana, Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue, Ohio State, Maryland, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin) plus future member UCLA are among the national top-50 in all-time NCAA tournament appearances.
Seasons are listed by the calendar years in which they ended. ''Italics'' indicate honors earned before the school competed in the Big Ten.
NCAA tournament champions, runners-up and locations
''† denotes overtime games. Multiple †'s indicate more than one overtime.''
Post-season NIT championships and runners-up
Women's basketball
Women's basketball teams have played a total of ten times in the
NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament (since 1982) and
Women's National Invitation Tournament Championship (since 1998). Purdue is the only current Big Ten member to have won the NCAA women's basketball national title while a member of the conference. Both schools that joined in 2014, Maryland and Rutgers, won national titles before joining the Big Ten—Rutgers won the final
AIAW championship in 1982, when it was a member of the
Eastern 8, and Maryland won the NCAA title in 2006 as a member of the
ACC. Big Ten women's basketball led conference attendance from 1993 to 1999.
Like the men's teams, the women's basketball teams in the Big Ten participate in the
Big Ten–ACC Women's Challenge, which was founded in 2007.
National championships, Final Fours, and NCAA tournament appearances
Seasons are listed by the calendar years in which they ended. ''Italics'' indicate seasons before the school competed in the Big Ten.
NCAA tournament champions, runners-up and locations
Women's National Invitation Tournament championship games
Field hockey
Big Ten field hockey programs have won 11
NCAA Championships, although only three of these titles were won by schools as Big Ten members. Maryland won eight national championships as a member of the ACC, second most in the sport all-time. Penn State's two AIAW championships were also won before it became a Big Ten member and before the NCAA sponsored women's sports.
Men's gymnastics
The Big Ten fields seven of the remaining fifteen Division I men's gymnastics teams, though Iowa and Minnesota will drop the sport after the 2020–21 season. In 2014, Michigan edged out Oklahoma for their 6th
NCAA Men's Gymnastics championship, the school's third in five years.
NCAA championships and runners-up
†–Chicago left the Big Ten in 1946.
††–Finishes prior to Penn State and Nebraska joining the Big Ten.
†††–Michigan State no longer competes in gymnastics.
Men's ice hockey
The Big Ten began sponsoring men's
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...
in the 2013–14 season, the only Power Five conference to do so.
The inaugural season included 6 schools:
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
,
Michigan State
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It ...
and
Ohio State joined from the disbanded
CCHA;
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...
and
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
joined from the
WCHA; and
Penn State joined after playing its first NCAA Division I season (2012–13) as an independent.
Notre Dame
Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to:
* Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France
* University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States
** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...
joined the league as an associate member beginning with the 2017–18 season.
Arizona State has a scheduling agreement with the conference for the 2020–21 season as an all-away game team, playing all seven Big Ten squads four times, but is not part of the conference and therefore is ineligible for the conference tournament or associated NCAA tournament automatic berth.
All-time school records
This list goes through the 2021–22 season. Totals for conference regular-season and tournament championships include those won before the schools played Big Ten hockey.
Conference records
Team's records against current conference opponents (as of the end of the 2018–19 season).
Note: games where one or more of the programs was not a varsity team are not included.
Conference champions
Big Ten Men's Ice Hockey Tournament champions
NCAA tournament champions, runners-up and locations
Awards
At the conclusion of each regular season schedule the coaches of each Big Ten team, as well as a media panel, vote which players they choose to be on the three All-Conference Teams: first team, second team and rookie team. Additionally they vote to award the 5 individual trophies to an eligible player at the same time. The Big Ten also awards a Tournament Most Outstanding Player which is voted on after the conclusion of the conference tournament. Each team also names one of their players to be honored for the conference Sportsmanship Award. All of the awards were created for the inaugural season (
2013–14).
Men's lacrosse
The Big Ten began sponsoring men's
lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensi ...
in the 2015 season. The Big Ten lacrosse league includes
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
,
Ohio State,
Penn State,
Rutgers, and
Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland where he remained for most ...
, which joined the Big Ten conference as an affiliate member in 2014. The teams that compete in Big Ten men's lacrosse have combined to win 13
NCAA national championships
Listed below are the colleges or universities with the most NCAA Division I-sanctioned team championships, individual championships, and combined team and individual championships, as documented by information published on official NCAA websites. ...
.
With the addition of Johns Hopkins and Maryland to the league, Big Ten men's lacrosse boasts two of the top programs and most heated rivals in the history of the sport. Johns Hopkins (29) and Maryland (26) combine for 55
NCAA Men's Lacrosse Final Four appearances. The media and both schools have called
Johns Hopkins–Maryland rivalry the greatest and most historic rivalry in men's lacrosse. Since 1895, the two teams have matched up more than 100 times.
[The Rivalry](_blank)
''Johns Hopkins Magazine'', Johns Hopkins University, retrieved March 25, 2009.
University of Maryland, April 10, 2008.
All-time school records
This list goes through the 2022 season.
National championships, Final Fours, and NCAA tournament appearances
Big Ten Conference champions
Big Ten men's lacrosse tournament champions
Women's lacrosse
Women's
lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensi ...
became a Big Ten-sponsored sport in the 2015 season. The Big Ten women's lacrosse league includes
Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland where he remained for most ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
,
Northwestern,
Ohio State,
Penn State, and
Rutgers. Big Ten women's lacrosse programs have 23 of the 38 all-time NCAA championships, including 12 of the last 15. Maryland has earned one pre-NCAA national title and has won 14 NCAA national championships, including seven straight from 1995 to 2001 and most recently in 2019. Northwestern has claimed seven NCAA titles, including five straight from 2005 to 2009. Penn State has earned three pre-NCAA national titles and two NCAA titles in 1987 and 1989. Johns Hopkins became the seventh women's lacrosse program in the Big Ten as of July 1, 2016.
All-time school records
This list goes through the 2021 season.
Men's soccer
The Big Ten men's soccer league includes
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
,
Michigan State
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It ...
,
Northwestern,
Ohio State,
Penn State,
Rutgers, and
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
. Big Ten men's soccer programs have combined to win 15
NCAA national championships
Listed below are the colleges or universities with the most NCAA Division I-sanctioned team championships, individual championships, and combined team and individual championships, as documented by information published on official NCAA websites. ...
.
All-time school records
This list goes through the 2013–14 season.
Rivalries
Intra-conference football rivalries
The members of the Big Ten have longstanding rivalries with each other, especially on the football field. Each school, except Maryland and Rutgers, has at least one
traveling trophy at stake. The following is a list of active rivalries in the Big Ten Conference with totals & records through the completion of the
2016 season.
Extra-conference football rivalries
From 1993 through 2010, the Big Ten football schedule was set up with each team having two permanent matches within the conference, with the other eight teams in the conference rotating out of the schedule in pairs for two-year stints. Permanent matches were as follows:
* Illinois: Indiana, Northwestern
* Indiana: Illinois, Purdue
* Iowa: Minnesota, Wisconsin
* Michigan: Michigan State, Ohio State
* Michigan State: Michigan, Penn State
* Minnesota: Iowa, Wisconsin
* Northwestern: Illinois, Purdue
* Ohio State: Michigan, Penn State
* Penn State: Michigan State, Ohio State
* Purdue: Indiana, Northwestern
* Wisconsin: Iowa, Minnesota
This system was discontinued after the 2010 season, as teams became grouped into two divisions, and would play all teams in their division once, with one protected cross-over game, and two games rotating against the other five opponents from the opposing division.
Most of the above permanent rivalries were maintained. By virtue of the new alignment, a handful of new permanent divisional opponents were created, as all pairs of teams within the same division would face off each season. Furthermore, three new permanent inter-divisional matches resulted from the realignment: Purdue–Iowa, Michigan State–Indiana, and Penn State–Nebraska. The following past permanent matches were maintained across divisions: Minnesota–Wisconsin, Michigan–Ohio State, and Illinois–Northwestern.
The new alignment, however, caused some of the above permanent rivalries to be discontinued. These were: Iowa–Wisconsin, Northwestern–Purdue, and Michigan State–Penn State. These matchups would continue to be played, but only twice every five years on average. More rivalries were disrupted, and some resumed on a yearly basis, when the league realigned into East and West Divisions for the 2014 season with the addition of Maryland and Rutgers. The two new schools were placed in the new East Division with Penn State, and the two Indiana schools were divided (Indiana to the East and Purdue to the West). With the move to a nine-game conference schedule in 2016, all cross-division games will be held at least once in a four-year cycle except for Indiana–Purdue, which is the only protected cross-division game.
The conference later announced that once the new scheduling format takes effect in 2016, members will be prohibited from playing
FCS teams, and required to play at least one non-conference game against a team in the
Power Five conferences (
ACC,
Big 12,
Pac-12 and
SEC; presumably, this would also allow for non-conference games against Big Ten opponents that are not on the conference schedule). Games against
independents Notre Dame
Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to:
* Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France
* University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States
** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...
(an ACC member in non-football sports) and
BYU will also count toward the Power Five requirement.
Intra-conference basketball rivalries
* Illinois: Indiana, Iowa, Northwestern
* Indiana: Illinois, Purdue
* Iowa: Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin
* Maryland: Penn State
* Michigan: Michigan State, Ohio State
* Michigan State: Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin
* Minnesota: Iowa, Wisconsin
* Northwestern: Illinois
* Ohio State: Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State
* Penn State: Maryland, Ohio State
* Purdue: Indiana
* Wisconsin: Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota
Extra-conference basketball rivalries
* Illinois: Missouri
* Indiana: Kentucky
* Iowa: Drake, Iowa State, Northern Iowa
* Maryland: Duke, Georgetown, Virginia
* Michigan: Duke, Detroit Mercy
*Michigan State: Duke, Oakland
* Nebraska: Creighton
* Penn State: Bucknell, Pittsburgh
* Rutgers: Princeton, Seton Hall
* Wisconsin: Green Bay, Marquette, Milwaukee
Other sports
Men's ice hockey
*
Michigan–Michigan State
* Minnesota–Wisconsin (
Border Battle)
* Minnesota–North Dakota
* Minnesota–Minnesota Duluth
* Minnesota–St. Cloud State
*
Michigan–Notre Dame
Men's lacrosse
*
Maryland–Johns Hopkins
* Penn State–Bucknell
* Rutgers–Princeton
Men's soccer
* Michigan–Michigan State (
Big Bear Trophy)
Wrestling
* Penn State–Lehigh
* Iowa-Penn State
* Iowa–Iowa State
* Iowa–Oklahoma State
* Rutgers–Princeton
Extra-conference rivalries
Four Big Ten teams—Purdue, Northwestern, Michigan State and Michigan—had rivalries in football with
Notre Dame
Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to:
* Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France
* University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States
** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...
. After the University of Southern California with 35 wins (including a vacated 2005 win), the Michigan State Spartans have the most wins against the Irish, with 28. The Purdue Boilermakers follow with 26, and Michigan ranks fourth all-time with 24.
Northwestern and
Notre Dame
Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to:
* Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France
* University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States
** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...
had a yearly contest, with the winner taking home a
shillelagh, much like the winner of the
USC–Notre Dame and Purdue–Notre Dame contests now receive. The Northwestern–Notre Dame shillelagh was largely forgotten by the early 1960s and is now solely an element of college football's storied past.
Penn State has a longstanding
rivalry with
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
of the
ACC, but the two schools did not meet from 2000 until renewing the rivalry with an alternating home-and-home series from 2016 to 2019. Penn State also has long histories with independent
Notre Dame
Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to:
* Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France
* University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States
** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...
;
Temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called church (building), churches), Hindui ...
of
The American;
Syracuse, and
Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifi ...
of the ACC; and
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
, of the
Big 12 Conference. Additionally, Penn State maintains strong intrastate rivalries with
Patriot League universities
Bucknell in men's basketball and men's lacrosse, and
Lehigh
Lehigh may refer to:
Places United States
*Lehigh, Iowa
*Lehigh, Kansas
*Lehigh, Oklahoma
*Lehigh, Barbour County, West Virginia
*Lehigh, Wisconsin
*Lehigh Acres, Florida
*Lehigh Township (disambiguation)
*Lehigh Valley, a region in eastern Penns ...
in wrestling. Most of these rivalries were cultivated while Penn State operated independent of conference affiliation; the constraints of playing a full conference schedule, especially in football, have reduced the number of meetings between Penn State and its non-Big Ten rivals.
Iowa has an in-state rivalry with
Iowa State of the Big 12, with the winner getting the
Cy-Hawk Trophy in football. Iowa and Iowa State also compete annually in the
Cy-Hawk Series sponsored by Hy-Vee (as of 2011 this series is now sponsored by The Iowa Corngrowers Association), the competition includes all head-to-head regular season competitions in all sports. Iowa also holds rivalries in basketball with the state's other two Division I programs,
Drake and
Northern Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois ...
.
Indiana has an out-of-conference rivalry with
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...
of the
SEC (see
Indiana–Kentucky rivalry). While the two schools played in football for many years, the rivalry was rooted in their decades of national success in men's basketball. The two no longer play one another in football, but their basketball rivalry continued until a dispute about game sites ended the series after 2011. In the last season of the rivalry (2011–12), the teams played twice. During the regular season, then-unranked
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...
defeated then-#1 ranked
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...
73–72 at Assembly Hall. The Wildcats avenged the loss in the NCAA tournament, defeating Indiana 102–90 in the South Regional final in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...
on their way to a national title. The teams next played in the 2016 NCAA tournament, with Indiana winning.
Illinois has a longstanding basketball rivalry with the
SEC's
Missouri Tigers, with the two men's teams squaring off annually in the "
Braggin' Rights" game. It has been held in
St. Louis since 1980, first at the
St. Louis Arena and since 1994 at the
Enterprise Center. This rivalry has been carried over into football as "The Arch Rivalry" with games played at the
Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis in 2002 and 2003 and four games in 2007 through 201
Wisconsin has a long-standing in-state basketball rivalry with
Marquette Golden Eagles men's basketball, Marquette. The series has intensified as of late with both teams having made the
Final Four in recent years. The schools also played an annual football game before Marquette abandoned its football program in 1961. The school also has minor rivalries in basketball with the two other Division I members of the
University of Wisconsin System, which include the
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and
University of Wisconsin–Green Bay.
Similarly, Nebraska has an in-state rivalry with another Big East school in
Creighton, mostly in basketball and baseball.
Minnesota men's ice hockey has a prolific and fierce border rivalry with the University of North Dakota. The two teams played annually between 1948 and 2013 as members of the
Western Collegiate Hockey Association prior to the inception of the Big Ten Conference. The rivalry resumed in 2016 in non-conference action.
Maryland has many rivalries outside of the conference, most notably
Duke
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, t ...
,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...
,
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
, and
Navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It include ...
. Maryland left the Duke and Virginia rivalries behind in the ACC when it joined the Big Ten.
In the early days of the Big Ten, the
Chicago-Michigan game was played on
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...
, usually with conference championship implications. It was considered one of the first major rivalries of the conference.
Facilities and apparel
Three Big Ten football stadiums seat over 100,000 spectators: Michigan Stadium (Michigan), Beaver Stadium (Penn State), and Ohio Stadium (Ohio State). Only five other college football stadiums have a capacity over 100,000 (four in the
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...
(SEC) and one in the
Big 12 Conference).
Michigan Stadium and Beaver Stadium, respectively, are the two
largest American football stadiums by capacity in the United States,
and all three of the Big Ten's largest venues rank among the ten
largest sports stadiums in the world.
Big Ten schools also play in two of the 10 largest on-campus basketball arenas in the country: Ohio State's
Value City Arena and Maryland's
Xfinity Center. Additionally, arenas at Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Penn State rank among the 20 largest on-campus basketball facilities in the United States. The Big Ten Conference has the most on-campus basketball arenas with seating capacities of 15,000 or more of any NCAA conference, with seven. (Of the other conferences considered "power conferences" in men's basketball, the ACC has two such arenas, the Big East none, the Big 12 two, the Pac-12 one, and the SEC five. Outside of these conferences, the Mountain West Conference has four such arenas and the West Coast Conference one through the 2022–23 season, after which the WCC member with such an arena, BYU, will join the Big 12.)
Football, basketball, and baseball facilities
Future members in gray.
Ice hockey arenas
Soccer stadiums
Apparel
Media
As of 2017, the Big Ten currently has broadcast rights agreements with
Fox Sports,
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
, and
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street (Manhattan), 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS ...
(primarily for college basketball), which last through the 2023–24 academic year. In 2006, the conference formed a dedicated cable network,
Big Ten Network, in partnership with Fox Sports. The network carries coverage of Big Ten athletics (including events not carried by the Big Ten's other media partners), studio shows, as well as other original programs and documentaries profiling the conference and its members.
*
Fox Sports:
** 24 to 27 football games per year (including tier 1 rights).
*** Nine games in primetime on
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelv ...
and
FS1.
** Top pick in the draft of weeks to select first in football.
** Football championship game every year.
** 39 to 47 men's basketball games.
*** Potentially ten of those games on Fox
*
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
:
** 27 football games
*** All intraconference games on
ABC,
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
or
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%).
ESPN2 was initially ...
.
*** At least six primetime games per season on
ABC or
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
.
** 38 men's basketball games.
*** Most intraconference games on
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
or
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%).
ESPN2 was initially ...
.
** Broad coverage of women's basketball and Olympic sports.
*
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street (Manhattan), 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS ...
:
** At least 10 regular season basketball games per-season on CBS, primarily on Sundays.
** Rights to the semifinals and championship of the men's basketball tournament.
On August 18, 2022, the Big Ten announced that it had reached seven-year broadcast rights deals with Fox, CBS, and for the first time,
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and it ...
, beginning in the 2023–24 academic year, ending an association between the conference and ESPN dating back to the 1980s. A major goal for the new contracts was to establish specific broadcast windows for Big Ten football games across its three partners, with Fox, CBS, and NBC primarily holding rights to Noon ET, 3:30 p.m ET, and primetime games respectively.
The contracts were estimated to be worth at least $7 billion,
but also reportedly includes an "escalator clause" that will raise the value of the contracts if the
Notre Dame Fighting Irish were to specifically join the Big Ten.
*Fox Sports:
** 24 to 32 football games per season:
*** Will primarily air in a Noon ET window, but with the option for games in other windows after USC and UCLA join in 2024.
*** Rights to the Big Ten championship game in 2023, 2025, 2027, and 2029.
** At least 45 men's basketball games per-season on Fox and
FS1.
** Selected women's basketball games and Olympic sport events.
*CBS Sports:
** 14 to 15 football games per season on
CBS and
Paramount+
Paramount+ is an American subscription video on-demand service owned by Paramount Global. The service's content is drawn primarily from the libraries of CBS Media Ventures (including CBS Studios), Paramount Media Networks (formerly Viacom Med ...
:
*** Once CBS's contract with the
SEC expires after the 2023 season, games will primarily air in the 3:30 p.m. ET window beginning in 2024. During the 2023 season, CBS will air seven games in various timeslots, scheduled around its SEC coverage.
*** Includes one Friday afternoon game on
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...
weekend.
*** Rights to the Big Ten championship game in 2024 and 2028.
** Up to 15 men's basketball games per-season:
*** Rights to the semi-finals and championship game of the
Big Ten men's basketball tournament
The Big Ten men's basketball tournament is held annually at the end of the men's college basketball regular season. The tournament has been played each year since 1998. The winner of the tournament is designated the Big Ten Tournament Champion, ...
*** Rights to the championship game of the
Big Ten women's basketball tournament
*NBC Sports:
** 14 to 16 football games per season on
NBC and
Peacock:
*** Games will primarily air in a primetime window on NBC
*** Eight games will stream exclusively on Peacock, including four intraconference games.
*** Rights to the Big Ten championship game in 2026
** Up to 77 basketball games per-season on Peacock:
*** Up to 47 men's basketball games, including 32 intraconference games.
*** Up to 30 women's basketball games, including 20 intraconference games.
*** Rights to the opening night doubleheaders of the men's and women's basketball tournaments.
** Up to 40 live Olympic sports events per-season on Peacock.
*Big Ten Network
** Up to 50 football games per season
** At least 126 men's basketball games per season
*** Second round and quarter-final games of the Big Ten men's basketball tournament
** At least 40 women's basketball games per season
*** Coverage of the Big Ten women's basketball tournament (outside of the championship game)
** Coverage of Olympic sports events.
See also
*
List of American collegiate athletic stadiums and arenas
*
List of Big Ten National Championships
The list of Big Ten national championships includes championships won by teams from the Big Ten Conference and former member Chicago. Including football champions listed in the official ''NCAA Records'' book, Big Ten teams have compiled 299 NCAA ...
*
Big Ten Universities
*
Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities The Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities, Inc. (MUCIA) is a Midwestern United States consortium of 10 Big Ten public research universities that collaborates on large-scale projects in developing countries. MUCIA was estab ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Sports organizations established in 1896
Park Ridge, Illinois
Sports associations based in Chicago
Sports in the Midwestern United States
Sports in the Eastern United States
Articles which contain graphical timelines