Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is a U.S. collegiate athletic conference. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1896, it predates the founding of its regulating organization, the NCAA; it is the oldest NCAA Division I conference. It is based 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 two affiliate institutions. The conference competes in the NCAA Division I and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision, 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 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. The members engage in $9.3 billion in funded research each year; 17 are members of the Association of American Universities and the Universities Research Association. All Big Ten universities are also members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, formerly the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.
Although the Big Ten was primarily 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.
Member universities
Full members
Notes:Membership map
Affiliate members
'''Notes'''Former member
The University of Chicago is the only full member to have permanently left the Big Ten Conference.| Institution | Location | Founded | Type | Enrollment | Nickname | Joined | Left | Colors | Current conference |
| University of Chicago | Chicago, Illinois | 1890 | Nonsectarian | 18,339 | Maroons | 1896 | 1946 | UAA |
;Notes:
Membership timeline
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id:Full value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
id:FullxF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football
id:AssocF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only
id:AssocOS value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for another sport only
id:OtherC1 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference
id:OtherC2 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference when the other color has already been used
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bar:1 color:Full from:1896 till:end text:Illinois
bar:2 color:Full from:1896 till:end text:Minnesota
bar:3 color:Full from:1896 till:end text:Northwestern
bar:4 color:Full from:1896 till:end text:Purdue
bar:5 color:Full from:1896 till:end text:Wisconsin
bar:6 color:Full from:1896 till:1907 text:Michigan
bar:6 shift: color:OtherC1 from:1907 till:1917 text:Ind.
bar:6 color:Full from:1917 till:end text:
bar:7 color:Full from:1896 till:1940 text:Chicago
bar:7 color:FullxF from:1940 till:1946 text:
bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1946 till:1976 text:Ind.
bar:7 color:OtherC2 from:1976 till:1986 text:MWC
bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1986 till:end text:UAA
bar:8 color:OtherC1 from:1896 till:1899 text:Ind.
bar:8 color:FullxF from:1899 till:1900 text:Indiana
bar:8 color:Full from:1900 till:end
bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:1896 till:1899 text:Ind.
bar:9 color:FullxF from:1899 till:1900 text:Iowa
bar:9 color:Full from:1900 till:end
bar:10 color:OtherC1 from:1896 till:1912 text:Ind.
bar:10 color:Full from:1912 till:end text:Ohio State
bar:11 color:OtherC1 from:1896 till:1907 text:MIAA
bar:11 color:OtherC2 from:1907 till:1950 text:Ind.
bar:11 color:FullxF from:1950 till:1953 text:Michigan State
bar:11 color:Full from:1953 till:end
bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:1896 till:1976 text:Ind.
bar:12 color:OtherC2 from:1976 till:1979 text:A-10
bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:1979 till:1982 text:Ind.
bar:12 color:OtherC2 from:1982 till:1990 text:A-10
bar:12 color:FullxF from:1990 till:1993 text:Penn State
bar:12 color:Full from:1993 till:end
bar:13 color:OtherC1 from:1896 till:1907 text:Ind.
bar:13 color:OtherC2 from:1907 till:1918 text:Big Eight
bar:13 color:OtherC1 from:1918 till:1921 text:Ind.
bar:13 color:OtherC2 from:1921 till:1996 text:Big Eight
bar:13 color:OtherC1 from:1996 till:2011 text:Big 12
bar:13 color:Full from:2011 till:end text:Nebraska
bar:14 color:OtherC1 from:1896 till:1921 text:Ind.
bar:14 color:OtherC2 from:1921 till:1953 text:SoCon
bar:14 color:OtherC1 from:1953 till:2014 text:ACC
bar:14 color:Full from:2014 till:end text:Maryland
bar:15 color:OtherC1 from:1896 till:1958 text:Ind.
bar:15 shift: color:OtherC2 from:1958 till:1961 text:MAC
bar:15 shift: color:OtherC1 from:1961 till:1976 text:Ind.
bar:15 color:OtherC2 from:1976 till:1995 text:A-10
bar:15 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2013 text:Big East
bar:15 shift: color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:2014 text:AAC
bar:15 color:Full from:2014 till:end text:Rutgers
bar:16 color:AssocOS from:2014 till:end text:Johns Hopkins
bar:17 color:AssocOS from:2017 till:end text:Notre Dame
bar:18 shift: color:OtherC1 from:1919 till:1920 text:Ind.
bar:18 shift: color:OtherC2 from:1920 till:1928 text:SCIAC
bar:18 color:OtherC1 from:1928 till:1959 text:PCC
bar:18 color:OtherC1 from:1959 till:1968 text:AAWU
bar:18 color:OtherC1 from:1968 till:1978 text:Pac-8
bar:18 color:OtherC1 from:1978 till:2011 text:Pac-10
bar:18 color:OtherC1 from:2011 till:2024 text:Pac-12
bar:18 color:Full from:2024 till:end text:UCLA
bar:19 color:OtherC2 from:1896 till:1922 text:Ind.
bar:19 color:OtherC1 from:1922 till:1959 text:PCC
bar:19 color:OtherC1 from:1959 till:1968 text:AAWU
bar:19 color:OtherC1 from:1968 till:1978 text:Pac-8
bar:19 color:OtherC1 from:1978 till:2011 text:Pac-10
bar:19 color:OtherC1 from:2011 till:2024 text:Pac-12
bar:19 color:Full from:2024 till:end text:USC
bar:20 color:OtherC1 from:1896 till:1908 text:Ind.
bar:20 shift: color:OtherC2 from:1908 till:1909 text:NIAA
bar:20 color:OtherC1 from:1909 till:1912 text:Ind.
bar:20 color:OtherC2 from:1912 till:1915 text:NIAA
bar:20 shift: color:OtherC1 from:1915 till:1959 text:PCC
bar:20 color:OtherC1 from:1959 till:1968 text:AAWU
bar:20 color:OtherC1 from:1968 till:1978 text:Pac-8
bar:20 color:OtherC1 from:1978 till:2011 text:Pac-10
bar:20 color:OtherC1 from:2011 till:2024 text:Pac-12
bar:20 color:Full from:2024 till:end text:Oregon
bar:21 color:OtherC1 from:1896 till:1905 text:Ind.
bar:21 color:OtherC2 from:1905 till:1915 text:NIAA
bar:21 color:OtherC1 from:1915 till:1959 text:PCC
bar:21 color:OtherC1 from:1959 till:1968 text:AAWU
bar:21 color:OtherC1 from:1968 till:1978 text:Pac-8
bar:21 color:OtherC1 from:1978 till:2011 text:Pac-10
bar:21 color:OtherC1 from:2011 till:2024 text:Pac-12
bar:21 color:Full from:2024 till:end text:Washington
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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 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. <#
History
1890s: The conference's founding
On January 11, 1895, Purdue University president James Henry Smart invited the presidents of the University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Lake Forest College, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, and University of Wisconsin to a meeting in Chicago, to create policies aimed at regulating intercollegiate athletics. The eligibility of student-athletes was one of the main topics of discussion, with it being decided that student-athletes must be full-time students in good standing. The conference was officially 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. Henceforth the seven attendees of this second meeting would be the founding members of the organization more commonly known as the Western Conference.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 first reference to the conference as the Big Nine was in 1899 after Iowa and Indiana had joined.
1900s: Becoming the Big Ten
first petitioned to join the league in 1900 and again in 1911, but was turned away both times. In 1905, the conference was officially incorporated as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives.In 1906, Michigan president James Burrill Angell called for a series of conference meetings to further regulate football, leading to new rules such as limiting football teams to no more than five games and players to three years of eligibility. One of the new rules would require the football coach to be a full-time employee of the university, leading to Michigan's football head coach, Fielding Yost, to oppose the changes. Ultimately Yost won out and convinced Michigan's board to support him over Angell and against the conference. In April 1907, Michigan was voted out of the conference for refusing to adhere to the new league rules. Ohio State joined in 1912, and as a result could no longer play Michigan until the school rejoined the conference after a nine-year absence. The first known references to the conference as the Big Ten were then made in December 1916 as a result.