Big Ten Conference

"Big Ten" redirects here. For other uses, see Big Ten (disambiguation).

Big Ten Conference
FormerlyIntercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives
(officially, 1896–1987)
Western Conference
(1896–1899)
Big Nine
(1899–1917, 1946–1950)
AssociationNCAA
Founded1896; 128 years ago (1896)
CommissionerTony Petitti (since 2023)
Sports fielded
  • 28
    • men's: 18
    • women's: 18
DivisionDivision I
SubdivisionFBS
No. of teams18
HeadquartersRosemont, Illinois, U.S.
Region
Official websitebigten.org
Locations
Location of teams in Big Ten Conference

The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is the oldest NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1896, it predates the founding of its regulating organization, the NCAA. It is based in the Chicago area in Rosemont, Illinois. For many decades the conference consisted of ten prominent universities, which accounts for its name. On August 2, 2024, the conference expanded to 18 member institutions and 2 affiliate institutions.[1][2] The conference competes in the NCAA Division I and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, the highest level of NCAA competition in that sport.

Big Ten member institutions are major research universities with large financial endowments and strong academic reputations. A large student body is a hallmark of its universities, as 15 of the 18 members enroll more than 30,000 students. They are all public universities except Northwestern University and the University of Southern California, both private universities. Collectively, Big Ten universities educate more than 520,000 total students and have 5.7 million living alumni.[1] The members engage in $9.3 billion in funded research each year;[2] 17 out of 18 are members of the Association of American Universities (except Nebraska) and the Universities Research Association (except USC). All Big Ten universities are also members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, formerly the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.[3]

Although the Big Ten has primarily been a Midwestern conference for nearly a century, the conference's geographic footprint has extended from the Mid-Atlantic to the Great Plains since 2014. In 2024, the conference gained a presence in the West Coast with the addition of four former Pac-12 Conference schools.[4]

  1. ^ a b "University of Maryland and Rutgers University Become Official Members of Big Ten Conference". Big Ten Conference. Archived from the original on June 26, 2016. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
  2. ^ a b "The CIC Welcomes the University of Maryland and Rutgers University to Membership". cic.net. December 28, 2015. Archived from the original on December 28, 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
  3. ^ "2014 Big Ten Academic Alliance University Data At-A-Glance" (PDF). Big Ten Academic Alliance. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  4. ^ Pizzo, Rick (March 2016). "Pizzo: Addition of Notre Dame strengthens Big Ten hockey". BTN.com. Big Ten Network. Retrieved May 31, 2016.