User:Dcheagle/Big 12 Conference
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is a member of the NCAA's Division I for all sports; its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division I-A), the higher of two levels of NCAA Division I football competition. Its ten members, located in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and West Virginia, include eight public and two private Christian schools.
Conference | NCAA |
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Founded | February 25, 1994[1] |
Commissioner | Bob Bowlsby |
Sports fielded |
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Division | Division I |
Subdivision | FBS |
No. of teams | 20 (10 full members, 10 affiliate members) |
Headquarters | Irving, Texas |
Region | West South Central, Midwest Appalachia (West Virginia) |
Official website | big12sports.com |
Locations | |
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The Big 12 was formerly composed of 12 schools, hence its name: it was formed in 1996 when four schools from the collapsing Southwest Conference (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor) joined with the pre-existing Big Eight Conference. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were grouped with the four newcomers in the "Big 12 South", while the remaining Six teams of the Big Eight (Kansas, Kansas State, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa State) formed the "Big 12 North".
The conference's current ten member makeup resulted from the 2010–13 Big 12 Conference realignment which was apart of a larger conference realignment. In 2011 Nebraska and Colorado left for the Big 10 Conference (Big 10) and Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12) respectfully. The following year Texas A&M and Missouri both left for the Southeastern Conference. Following their departure TCU and West Virginia joined from the Mountain West and Big East Conferences respectively to offset the departing schools, bringing the conference to its current strength. In addition to the ten full members the conference also has ten affiliate members that take part in ether Wrestling, Women's rowing, or Women's gymnastics.
The Big 12 Conference, like others involved in the realignment, has kept its name primarily for marketing purposes; the conference has high name recognition, attempts to rename the conference to reflect its current membership strength would lead to confusion with the Big Ten Conference (which currently has 14 members).
The Big 12 is considered a member of the Power Five conferences, who are considered the primary contenders to produce a College Football Playoff championship team in any given year. The conference is also considered a member of the Power Seven Basketball Conferences who have historically placed the majority of the teams into the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
The Big 12 Conference commissioner is Bob Bowlsby.