Big Ten Conference

Members

Associate member

Future associate member

Former member

Membership timeline

Full members Full members (non-football) Sport Affiliate Other Conference Other Conference

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 will join 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 to follow in 2016. It continues to field its other sports in the NCAA Division III Centennial Conference

Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Big Ten Conference which are played by Big Ten schools:

Notes:

1: Fencing is officially a coeducational team sport, although a few schools field only a women's team. Ohio State and Penn State, like most NCAA fencing schools, have coed teams.

2: Men's rowing, whether heavyweight or lightweight, is not governed by the NCAA, but instead by the Intercollegiate Rowing Association. Rutgers Men's Rowing was downgraded to Club status in 2008, but remains a member of the EARC.

3: Unlike rifle, pistol is not an NCAA-governed sport. It is fully coeducational.

4: Rifle is technically a men's sport, but men's, women's, and coed teams all compete against each other. Ohio State fields a coed team.

Women's sponsored sports by school

Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Big Ten Conference which are played by Big Ten schools:

History

Initiated and led by Purdue University President James Henry Smart, the presidents of University of Chicago, University of Illinois, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, Northwestern University, Purdue University and Lake Forest College met in Chicago 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 that established the conference and was replaced by the University of Michigan. At the time, the organization was more commonly known as the Western Conference, consisting of Purdue, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Chicago, and Northwestern.

The first reference to the conference as the Big Nine was in 1899 after Iowa and Indiana had joined. Nebraska first petitioned to join the league in 1900 and again in 1911, but was turned away both times. In April 1907, Michigan was voted out of the conference for failing to adhere to league rules. Ohio State was added to the conference in 1912. The first known references to the conference as the Big Ten were in February 1917, when Michigan sought to rejoin 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. Chicago discontinued its football program in 1939 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 Pittsburgh, Nebraska, Michigan State, Marquette, Notre Dame, and Iowa State 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.

1990 expansion: Penn State

In 1990, the Big Ten universities voted to expand the conference to 11 teams and extended an invitation to 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 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, Missouri and Rutgers or other potential schools, to create a 14-team league with two divisions. These talks died when the Big Eight Conference merged with former Southwest Conference members to create the Big 12.

Following the addition of previously independent Penn State, efforts were made to encourage the University of Notre Dame, at that time the last remaining non-service academy independent, to join the league. Early in the 20th century, Notre Dame briefly considered official entry into the Big Ten but chose to retain its independent status. However, 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. [2] 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, 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. 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 led to the interesting result of the Big Ten consisting of twelve teams, and the Big 12 consisting of ten teams.

On September 1, Delany revealed the conference's divisional split, but noted that the division names would be announced later. Those division names, as well as the conferences new logo, were made public on December 13, 2010. For their 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 division names, the Big Ten was unable to use geographic names, as used by the SEC, 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" names 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, and 2013 football seasons.

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 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), while the East Division includes Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers. 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 campus is geographically west of Indiana's home city of Bloomington. In the current divisional alignment, the only 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 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's team is currently a member of Hockey East, and the move will save them from longer trips to New England while renewing rivalries that existed in the CCHA and WCHA.

In 2012, the conference announced it would move its headquarters from its location in Park Ridge, Illinois to neighboring Rosemont by the end of 2013. The new 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.

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."

Twelve of the thirteen public schools in the Big Ten (Nebraska excepted) are considered "Public Ivies" (. Each Big Ten institution (Nebraska excepted) is a member of the American Association of Universities and is ranked in the US News & World Report top-100 and the Times Higher Education top-200. Nebraska joined the AAU in 1909 but was removed in April 2011 when the AAU disallowed University of Nebraska Medical Center data points to be included in the AAU formula and began to decrease the weight given to agricultural research. Commissioner Jim Delany stated that Nebraska's removal from the AAU would have no bearing upon their Big Ten membership. Nebraska does, however, lead the NCAA with a record of 314 Academic All-Americans (followed by Notre Dame with 221). Currently, no Division I conference is composed exclusively of AAU members. However, the University Athletic Association, a Division III conference is composed of entirely AAU members.

All Big Ten members are members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), formerly known as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), an academic consortium which allows students at Big Ten institutions to take distance courses at other participating institutions. Students at participating schools are also allowed "in-house" viewing privileges at other participating schools' libraries. The BTAA also employs collective purchasing, which has saved member institutions $19 million to date. The University of Chicago, a former Big Ten Conference member, was a member of the CIC from 1958 to June 29, 2016 (when it was renamed the Big Ten Academic Alliance).

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, individual institutions and the United States Department of Education.

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)

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.

2014–2015 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.

2014–2015 CBS Sports Best in College Sports Rankings

The CBS Sports Best in College Sports award is weighed more heavily toward sports that generate fan and media interest. The poll rates five sports: football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball and a "wild card" sport. The wild-card spot is awarded to the most successful among schools' other spectator sports: softball, men's lacrosse, men's ice hockey, men's soccer, wrestling, volleyball, women's soccer or women's gymnastics. Women's basketball, baseball, and the "wild card" carry normal weight, with men's basketball double and football triple.

Conference records

NCAA national titles

Through the sports year ended July 1, 2015, per published NCAA summary, with updates for the subsequent sports 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), equestrian titles (0), and retroactive Helms Athletic Foundation titles.

Conference titles

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 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. Also since 2016, the Big Ten no longer allows its members to play Football Championship Subdivision teams, and also requires at least one non-conference game against a school in the Power Five conferences (ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC). At the time this policy was first announced, games against FBS independents Notre Dame and BYU would automatically count toward the Power Five requirement. Additionally, Big Ten teams that were already under contract to play teams in the "Group of Five" leagues (American, C-USA, MAC, MW, Sun Belt) were allowed to honor those contracts. As of 2015, three Big Ten members had American member Cincinnati on their future schedules, one had fellow American member Connecticut on its future schedule; and one had future games scheduled against both. 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, had been added to the list of non-Power Five schools that would automatically be counted as Power Five opponents.

* The Indiana–Purdue game is the only protected game between the East and West divisions (all other matchups between East and West occur on a rotating basis).

All-time school records

This list goes through the 2016 regular season.

† Numbers of championships shown reflect Big Ten history only and do not include division and conference championships in former conferences. Maryland and Rutgers joined the Big Ten in 2014. Nebraska joined in 2011

Bowl games

Since 1946, the Big Ten champion has had a tie-in with the Rose Bowl game. Michigan appeared in the first bowl game, 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. 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 after playing in the 1961 Rose Bowl due to Ohio State declining the bid because of Ohio State faculty concerns about academics. Due to their "Rose Bowl or bust" policy, the 1972, 1973 and 1974 Michigan squads did not play in bowl games despite posting 10 wins in each season.

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, which always placed multiple teams in bowl games every year.

Starting in the 2014–15 season, a new slate of bowl game selections will include 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 and ACC will switch between the Music City and TaxSlayer bowls on alternating years.

‡ The Big Ten and Big 12 will switch between the Heart of Dallas and Armed Forces bowls on alternating years.

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 won-lost 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 Capital One Orange Bowl will select the highest-ranked team from the Big Ten, SEC or Notre Dame to face an ACC opponent. The Big Ten Champion cannot play in the Orange Bowl. If a Big Ten team is not selected by the Orange Bowl, the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl will submit a request for a Big Ten team.

The Outback, Foster Farms and Holiday Bowls will feature at least five different Big Ten schools over the six-year agreement (through 2019 season). The Music City and Taxslayer Bowl will coordinate their selections allowing only one to pick a Big Ten team. The Big Ten will make appearances in three of each bowl games over the term of the agreement (through 2019 season).

The New Era Pinstripe Bowl will feature a minimum of six different Big Ten teams over the eight-year agreement (through 2021 season).

The Quick Lane, Armed Forces and Heart of Dallas Bowls will select a bowl-eligible Big Ten team, subject to conference approval.

Head coach compensation

The total pay of head coaches includes university and non-university compensation. This includes base salary, income from contracts, foundation supplements, bonuses and media and radio pay.

Marching bands

All Big Ten member schools have marching bands 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 (1982), Illinois (1983) and Ohio State (1984). The Big Ten also has more Sudler Trophy recipients than any other collegiate athletic conference. It is a longstanding tradition for Big Ten bands to perform the opposing team's fight song during their pregame performance.

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 made it to the championship game, winning nine championships. Michigan, Ohio State, and Minnesota have won two NIT championships, while Indiana, Penn State, and Purdue have won one each. Two other current members, Maryland and Nebraska, won NIT titles before they joined the Big Ten. In addition, the Helms Athletic Foundation recognizes Illinois as the 1915 National Champions, Minnesota as the 1902 and 1919 National Champions, Northwestern as the 1931 National Champion, Purdue as the 1932 National Champions, and Wisconsin as the 1912, 1914 and 1916 National Champions. 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 a 10–4–2 record against the Big Ten; Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, and Rutgers are the only Big Ten schools without losing records in the challenge.

All-time school records

This list goes through the 2015–16 season listed by most victories in NCAA Division I men's college basketball

† Michigan and Ohio State vacated their 1998 and 2002 Big Ten Tournament Championships, respectively, due to NCAA sanctions.

National championships, Final Fours, and 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.

Women's basketball

Women's basketball teams have played a total of ten times in the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship (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.

Field hockey

Big Ten field hockey programs have won 10 NCAA Championships, although only two 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. 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 in the 2013–14 season. The inaugural season includes 6 schools: Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State joined from the disbanded CCHA; Minnesota and Wisconsin joined from the WCHA; and Penn State joined after playing its first NCAA Division I season (2012–2013) as an independent. Notre Dame will be joining the league in 2017.

All-time school records

This list goes through the 2014–15 season

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 in the 2015 season. The Big Ten lacrosse league includes Maryland, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, and Johns Hopkins, 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 11 NCAA national championships.

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 (24) combine for 53 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.

All-time school records

This list goes through the 2015–16 season.

Women's lacrosse

Women's lacrosse became a Big Ten-sponsored sport in the 2015 season. The Big Ten women's lacrosse league includes Johns Hopkins, Maryland, Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, and Rutgers. Big Ten women's lacrosse programs have 21 of the 34 all-time NCAA championships, including 10 of the last 11. Maryland has won 13 NCAA national championships, including seven straight from 1995 to 2001 and most recently in 2015. 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 2014–15 season.

Men's soccer

The Big Ten men's soccer league includes Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, and Wisconsin. Big Ten men's soccer programs have combined to win 14 NCAA national championships.

All-time school records

This list goes through the 2013–14 season.

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.

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:

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 (an ACC member in non-football sports) and BYU will also count toward the Power Five requirement.

Intra-Conference Basketball Rivalries

Extra-Conference Basketball Rivalries

Men's Ice Hockey

Men's Lacrosse

Men's Soccer

Wrestling

Extra-conference rivalries

Three Big Ten teams—Purdue, Michigan State and Michigan—had rivalries in football with Notre Dame. 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.

Penn State has a longstanding rivalry with Pittsburgh 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; Temple of The American; Syracuse, and Boston College of the ACC; and West Virginia, 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 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.

Indiana has an out-of-conference rivalry with Kentucky 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 defeated then-#1 ranked Kentucky 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 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 Scottrade 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 2010.[3]

Wisconsin has a long-standing in-state basketball rivalry with 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.

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 will resume in 2016 in non-conference action.

In the early days of the Big Ten, the Chicago–Michigan game was played on Thanksgiving, usually with conference championship implications and was considered one of the first major rivalries of the conference.

Also in the early days of the conference, and at Knute Rockne's insistence, Northwestern and Notre Dame 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.

Facilities

The Big Ten is second to the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in football stadiums that seat over 100,000, with the Big Ten having three to the SEC's four. The Big Ten's 100,000-seat stadiums are Beaver Stadium, Michigan Stadium, and Ohio Stadium. Only five other college football stadium have such a capacity: Texas A&M's Kyle Field, Neyland Stadium at the University of Tennessee, Bryant–Denny Stadium of the University of Alabama and LSU's Tiger Stadium in the SEC, and Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas at Austin in the Big 12 Conference. The three stadiums are three of the four largest football stadiums in the United States, as well as the third, fourth, and seventh largest sports stadiums in the world.

The Big Ten is home to two of the top-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 top-20 largest on-campus basketball facilities in the United States. The Big Ten Conference features more on-campus basketball arenas with seating capacities of 15,000 or more than any other conference in the country.

Media

As of 2010, the Big Ten has carriage agreements with the following broadcast and cable networks.

Broadcast television

Cable television