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History of the Conference

Known as one of intercollegiate sports’ most successful undertakings, the Big Ten Conference is home to a lineage of legendary names and an ongoing tradition of developing strong leaders. Even in its infancy, the conference established itself as the preeminent collection of institutions in the nation, where the pursuit of academic excellence prevailed as the definitive goal.

The history of the Big Ten traces back more than 125 years to the Palmer House hotel in Chicago where, on January 11, 1895, Purdue President James H. Smart and leaders from the University of Chicago, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and University of Wisconsin set out to organize and develop principles for the regulation of intercollegiate athletics.

At that meeting, a blueprint for the administration of college athletics under the direction of appointed faculty representatives was outlined. The presidents’ first known action “restricted eligibility for athletics to bona fide, full-time students who were not delinquent in their studies.” That important legislation, along with other legislation that would follow in the coming years, served as the primary building block for intercollegiate athletics.

On February 8, 1896, one faculty member from each of those seven universities met at the same Palmer House and officially established the fundamentals of the conference, which was officially incorporated as the “Intercollegiate Conference Athletic Association” in 1905.

Indiana University and the State University of Iowa became the eighth and ninth members in 1899. In 1908, Michigan briefly withdrew its membership, and in 1912 Ohio State University joined the conference, bringing the membership total back to nine. Upon Michigan’s return in 1917, the conference was first referred to as the “Big Ten” by media members, a name that was eventually incorporated in 1987.

As the 1900s dawned, faculty representatives established rules for intercollegiate athletics that were novel for the time. As early as 1904, the faculty approved legislation that required eligible athletes to meet entrance requirements and to have completed a full year’s work, along with having one year of residence.

In 1901, the first Big Ten Championship event was staged when the outdoor track and field championships were conducted at the University of Chicago. The debut event marked what is now a staple of conference competition. Today, the Big Ten sponsors 28 official sports, 14 for men and 14 for women. Big Ten schools compete in a total of 42 different sports, furthering the conference’s commitment to broad-based programming and providing more participation opportunities than any conference in the country.

One of the conference’s proudest traditions began in 1902 when Michigan took on Stanford in the Rose Bowl, the nation’s first bowl game. Big Ten teams only appeared in Pasadena twice before the conference signed an exclusive contract with the Tournament of Roses in 1946, making it the first bowl game with permanent conference affiliations. But Michigan’s appearance in 1902 cultivated a relationship that has endured for more than a century.

Coupling the academic goals set forth by leaders of the charter members of the conference and their steadfast commitment to athletics, the conference instituted the Big Ten Medal of Honor in 1915, the first award to demonstrate support for the educational emphasis placed on intercollegiate athletics. It is awarded annually by each conference institution to one male and one female student of the graduating class who have attained the greatest proficiency in scholarship and athletics. For more than 100 years, it has been the most prestigious honor a Big Ten student-athlete can receive.

In 1922, Major John L. Griffith became the conference’s first “Commissioner of Athletics.” Griffith was the first of seven men to assume the role of commissioner in the conference’s history, followed by Kenneth L. “Tug” Wilson in 1945, Bill Reed in 1961, Wayne Duke in 1971, Jim Delany in 1989, Kevin Warren in 2020, and current commissioner Tony Petitti in 2023.

After nearly 30 years with 10 members, the conference consolidated to nine schools when the University of Chicago formally withdrew its membership in 1946. Michigan State College (now Michigan State University) was added to the Big Ten three years later, bringing the number of affiliated conference schools to 10 once again.

In 1955, the Big Ten formulated a revenue-sharing model designed to pool all football television rights of its members and share those proceeds equally. The conference and its members continue to utilize a revenue-sharing model, dividing media rights, bowl payouts and other profits among all institutions.

While academics have always played an integral role in the conference, presidents of the Big Ten member institutions formalized the primacy of academics with the establishment of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (formerly the Committee on Institutional Cooperation) in 1958. The Big Ten Academic Alliance is an academic consortium of all Big Ten universities. Annually, the schools currently constituting the Big Ten Academic Alliance produce over $10 billion in funded research, doubling any other conference.

In one of Duke’s first actions as commissioner, he oversaw the adoption of the Big Ten Advisory Commission in 1972, designed to study conference programs and make suggestions which would further Big Ten objectives. The Advisory Commission enlists former students that competed in Big Ten athletics to serve as liaisons to the NCAA’s Diversity and Inclusion Department, the Big Ten Student-Athlete Advisory Commission and other organizations.

In 1981, the conference presidents and chancellors endorsed a proposal that enabled universities to affiliate their women’s intercollegiate programs with the conference, and the first conference championships for women were staged that fall. The Big Ten was the first conference to voluntarily adopt male and female participation goals after launching its Gender Equity Action Plan in 1992.

In December of 1989, the conference agreed in principle to invite Pennsylvania State University for membership. On June 4, 1990, the Council of Presidents officially voted to integrate Penn State into the conference, giving the Big Ten 11 members.

In 2004, the Big Ten implemented a pilot program of instant replay for college football. Following the season, the conference forwarded replay proposals to the NCAA regarding the future use of the pioneering technology, where it approved country-wide testing in 2005. In 2006, the NCAA approved the use of instant replay for all conferences.

In 2006, Delany announced the creation of the first conference-owned television network, a 20-year agreement with FOX Networks to create the Big Ten Network (BTN). Launched on Aug. 30, 2007, BTN now produces more than 2,200 live events across all platforms each year. The 24/7 network is the ultimate destination for Big Ten fans and alumni across the country and around the world, allowing them to see their favorite teams, regardless of where they live.

On June 11, 2010, the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors (COP/C) approved a formal membership application by the University of Nebraska, expanding the conference to 12 institutions. Nebraska officially joined the Big Ten on July 1, 2011.

The conference expanded its footprint further in 2012 when the COP/C approved formal membership applications from the University of Maryland and Rutgers University on November 19 and 20, respectively. Maryland and Rutgers became official Big Ten members on July 1, 2014, giving the conference almost 9,500 students participating in intercollegiate athletics and more than 11,000 participation opportunities on 350 teams.

On June 3, 2013, the Big Ten announced that Johns Hopkins University had been accepted as the conference’s first sport affiliate member. Johns Hopkins’ addition in men’s lacrosse gave the Big Ten six institutions sponsoring the sport, allowing the debut of men’s lacrosse as an official conference sport and building on the Big Ten’s tradition of broad-based sports competition. On June 17, 2015, the conference announced that Johns Hopkins also was accepted as a sport affiliate member for women's lacrosse beginning with the 2016-17 academic year. On March 23, 2016, the conference announced that Notre Dame would be joining the Big Ten for men’s ice hockey beginning with the 2017-18 academic year.

In recent years the Big Ten has worked to meet the educational needs of modern student-athletes to allow them to excel in all areas of their lives. In May of 2020, the conference announced the formation of the Big Ten Mental Health and Wellness Cabinet, featuring representation from all 14 member institutions, as well as sport affiliate members. The goal of the cabinet is to promote optimal mental health for Big Ten student-athletes through a comprehensive, systemic and interdisciplinary approach to establishing mental health programs, while also providing counsel, advice and expertise to the conference office.

In June of 2020 the conference launched the Big Ten Equality Coalition. This group, which features student-athletes, coaches, athletic directors, chancellors, presidents and other members of the Big Ten family from all 14 member institutions, has a stated goal of seeking tangible ways to actively and constructively combat racism and hate around the world, while also empowering student-athletes to express their rights to free speech and peaceful protest. One product of conversations emerging from the coalition was the creation of the Big Ten Voter Registration Initiative. This non-partisan, conference-wide collaboration encourages student-athletes to take part in the electoral process and is led by a Voter Registration Committee that includes representatives from all 14 Big Ten institutions. The Voter Registration Committee has partnered with the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to develop educational programming and outreach tools, and to collaborate with other established civic platforms.

On June 30, 2022, the Big Ten Conference furthered its legacy of transformation when the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors (COP/C) voted unanimously to admit the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California to the conference effective August 2, 2024. Competition will begin for all conference sports in the 2024-25 academic year.

In July of 2022, the Big Ten traveled a delegation of student-athletes and administrators from its member institutions to Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, for an immersive experience entitled: “Big Life Series: Selma to Montgomery.” The pilgrimage to one of the key centers of the civil rights movement was highlighted by a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, which is the site of the 1965 Bloody Sunday attack. The delegation also visited the Montgomery Interpretive Center on the campus of Alabama State University to learn more about the profound impact that students had on the civil rights movement, and the significance of the Knight vs. Alabama landmark trial which ended the segregation of funding in higher education across the State of Alabama. The experience was so transformational for all involved that the Big Ten returned to Selma and Montgomery in 2023, not just for the Big Life Series visit, but also a separate trip for a youth tennis clinic featuring conference student-athletes and staff.

In April of 2023, the Big Ten announced that Petitti was selected as the conference’s seventh commissioner. With nearly four decades of sports, business and media industry acumen, he served as deputy commissioner and chief operating officer of Major League Baseball and president and chief executive officer of MLB Network. A 14-time National Sports Emmy Award winner, Petitti also held senior executive roles at CBS Sports and ABC Sports overseeing rights acquisition deals for a variety of sports leagues and collegiate and professional sports events, including the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, regular season men’s basketball, college football, NFL, PGA Tour, the Masters, U.S. Open Tennis Championships, and the Little League World Series, as well as leading in the creation of the Bowl Championship Series to determine college football’s national champion.

On August, 4, 2023, the Big Ten The Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors voted unanimously to admit the University of Oregon and the University of Washington to the conference effective August 2, 2024, with competition to begin in all sports for the 2024-25 academic year. With the schools’ admission, Oregon and Washington would also join the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), a consortium of world-class research institutions dedicated to advancing their academic missions.

More than 125 years after its inception, the Big Ten remains a national leader in intercollegiate athletics on and off the field. Big Ten programs have combined to win more than 450 team and 1,800 individual national championships, consistently taking home individual honors for athletic and academic accomplishments and fulfilling the Big Ten’s mission of academic achievement and athletic success.

Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors

The Council of Presidents and Chancellors (COP/C) holds ultimate authority and responsibility for Big Ten Conference governance. All policy is decided at the COP/C level, including the conference office annual budget and all other financial matters.

Other responsibilities of the COP/C include, but are not limited to, hiring and determining duties of the Big Ten Commissioner, enforcing conference rules, agreements, appendices and bylaws, amending or repealing bylaws and admitting new institutions into membership.

The COP/C Executive Committee conducts the regular business of the COP/C between its two annual meetings and provides direction to the commissioner in the conduct of the day-to-day operations of the conference.

The COP/C has roots that date back to early 1952. In May of that year, it was determined that the conference commissioner be employed by the 10 conference presidents, and that the commissioner shall report to that group on the enforcement of conference rules and regulations. The group, then known as the Council of Ten, was re-named the Council of Presidents and Chancellors with the inclusion of Penn State University in June of 1990.

Current COP/C members are listed below.

Robert J. Jones, Chancellor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Pamela Whitten, President, Indiana University
Barbara J. Wilson, President, University of Iowa
Darryll J. Pines, President, University of Maryland
Santa J. Ono, President, University of Michigan
Kevin Guskiewicz, President, Michigan State University
Jeff Ettinger, President, University of Minnesota
Chris Kabourek, Interim President, University of Nebraska System
Michael Schill, President, Northwestern University
Ted Carter, President, The Ohio State University
Neeli Bendapudi, President, Penn State University
Mung Chiang, President, Purdue University
Jonathan Holloway, President, Rutgers University
Jennifer L. Mnookin, Chancellor, University of Wisconsin

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