The Big Ten Conference began sponsoring men's ice hockey with the 2013–14 season. The inaugural season included six schools: Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State which joined from the disbanded Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA); Minnesota and Wisconsin which joined from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA); and Penn State which joined after playing its first NCAA Division I season (2012-2013) as an independent.
On March 22, 2016, the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's team would leave Hockey East to join the Big Ten as hockey members starting in the 2017-2018 season.
References
Big Ten Conference (ice hockey) Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA