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The Big Ten Conference has been around for a long time, albeit by different names. It has been known as the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference in the past century.
The conference was founded in 1896 as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives, predating the establishment of the NCAA. Members of the league compete in Division I of the NCAA as well as the Football Bowl Subdivision for their football teams.
The Big Ten is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois, and as you might guess from its name, the conference consisted of 10 members for many years.
Membership of the Big Ten
The conference had 14 full-member institutions as far back as 2014 and two affiliate members. Two more members are scheduled to join its ranks starting in 2024.
Big Ten schools are strong prestigious research institutions reputed for excellent academic performance. They also have massive enrollment figures, with 12 out of the 14 schools enrolling more than 30,000 students.
The following is a list of the 14 full-member institutions of the Big Ten:
East Division
Indiana University
Maryland
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn State
Rutgers
West Division
Illinois
Iowa
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern
Purdue
Wisconsin
Pac-12 teams USC and UCLA are scheduled to join the league in 2024.
Big Ten members are all state-owned public universities, with the exception of Northwestern, which will be joined in 2024 by USC as a privately owned university.
Big Ten's media rights deal
The conference announced in Aug. 2022 that it had secured a seven-year media rights deal with CBS, Fox and NBC Sports. The deal takes effect from the 2023 season, ending the conference's long-time association with ESPN. The media deal is expected to fetch the conference at least $7 billion.
This amount can increase, however, depending on a clause that requires the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to become a member of the conference. This will be an interesting addition if it ever happens.
Tony Petiti resumed office as the seventh commissioner of the Big Ten on May 15, 2023. This was after former commissioner Kevin Warren resigned to become president of the Chicago Bears.
Petiti previously worked as the Chief Operating Officer of the MLB, where he succeeded Rob Manfred in 2015. Before then, he was the president and CEO of the MLB network and was responsible for the day-to-day running of the network. He has also served as the president of sports and entertainment of Activision Blizzard.
