Big Ten Conference Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The Big Ten Conference is a college athletic conference located in the northern United States, stretching from Iowa in the west to Pennsylvania in the east. The conference competes in the NCAA's Division I-A.
Since 1990, there have actually been eleven schools in the conference:
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (joined 1895)
- Indiana University Bloomington (joined 1899)
- University of Iowa (joined 1899)
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (joined 1895, left 1908, rejoined 1917)
- Michigan State University (joined 1950, began play 1953)
- University of Minnesota Twin Cities (joined 1895)
- Northwestern University (joined 1895)
- Ohio State University at Columbus (joined 1912)
- Pennsylvania State University, University Park (joined 1990, began play 1993)
- Purdue University (joined 1895)
- University of Wisconsin, Madison (joined 1895)
Member schools participate in baseball, men's and women's basketball, cross country, field hockey, football, golf, gymnastics, indoor and outdoor track, rowing, men's and women's soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, volleyball and wrestling.
The University of Chicago was a founding member of the Big Ten (1895-1946), but left when it decided to deemphasize varsity athletics just before World War II. Chicago discontinued football in 1939 and left the Conference in 1946.
The Big Ten was founded in 1895 as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives. The first reference of the Conference as The Big Nine was in 1899 after Iowa and Indiana had joined the Conference. The first reference as the Big Ten was in 1917 after Michigan rejoined the conference (Ohio State had been added in 1912). It again was known as the Big Nine after the University of Chicago’s departure in 1946, and back to the Big Ten in 1950 when Michigan State joined. The Conference’s official name throughout the time was still the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives and was also known as the Western Conference. It did not formally adopt the name Big Ten until 1988 when it was incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation. Membership in the Big Ten conference also entitles member schools admission to the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a leading educational consortium.
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2 College football rivalries within the Big Ten 3 External link |
The members of the Big Ten have long-standing rivalries with each other, especially on the football field. Many of them have travelling trophies at stake. The annual Michigan-Ohio State matchup at the end of the season (which has no trophy at stake) is probably the most well-known Big Ten rivalry. Some other Big Ten rivalries include (with their respective travelling trophy in parentheses):
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."College football rivalries within the Big Ten
Purdue, Michigan State and Michigan are among the Big Ten teams who also have traditional rivalries with Notre Dame. Iowa has an in-state rivalry with Iowa State, with the winner getting the Cy-Hawk Trophy. Indiana has an out-of conference rivalry with Kentucky, but the rivalry has a much higher profile in basketball than in football.