The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference of twelve schools located in the central United States. It is a member of the NCAA's Division I for all sports, and Division I-A for football.
The conference was formed on February 25, 1994, when the former Big Eight Conference merged with four Texas schools that had been members of the Southwest Conference, which had just disbanded. Athletic events in the conference began in the fall of 1996.
The current Big 12 Conference commissioner is Kevin L. Weiberg.
Membership
Big 12 North
Big 12 South
Sports
Member schools participate in the following:
- Men only: baseball, football
- Women only: soccer, softball, volleyball
- Men and women: basketball, cross-country, golf, tennis, track
Additionally:
- Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State participate in wrestling.
- Kansas State, Baylor, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M participate in equestrian.
- Iowa State, Nebraska and Oklahoma participate in gymnastics.
- Kansas, Kansas State and Texas participate in rowing.
- Texas and Texas A&M participate in swimming and diving. (Iowa State, Nebraska and Kansas participate only in women's swimming and diving.)
- Nebraska participates in women's bowling and the coeducational sport of rifle.
- Texas A&M participates in women's archery.
- Colorado participates in skiing.
Exceptions:
- Colorado does not participate in baseball and softball.
- Iowa State does not participate in baseball (program discontinued in 2001).
- Kansas State does not participate in softball, soccer or men's tennis.
- Oklahoma State does not participate in volleyball.
College football
When the league was formed, it was decided that the top team from the South Division would play the top team from the North Division at the end of the season to decide the conference champion. The following is a list of the championship game's outcomes and what each team's rank was in the AP poll coming into the game.
Big 12 Football Champsionship Games
- 1996, Texas 37, #3 Nebraska 27
- 1997, #2 Nebraska 54, #14 Texas A&M 15
- 1998, #10 Texas A&M 36, #2 Kansas St 33
- 1999, #2 Nebraska 22, #12 Texas 6
- 2000, #1 Oklahoma 27, #8 Kansas St 24
- 2001, #9 Colorado 39, #3 Texas 37
- 2002, #8 Oklahoma 29, #12 Colorado 7
- 2003, #15 Kansas St 35, #1 Oklahoma 7
- 2004, #2 Oklahoma 42, Colorado 3
Rivalries involving Big 12 schools
The Big 12 has many rivalries among its member schools, especially in football. Most of the rivalries have existed since before the Big Eight and Southwest Conferences merged, with Texas-Oklahoma being especially notable since it was a major rivalry before the two schools were in the same conference, going back 100 years. Some of the football rivalries involving Big 12 schools include (with travelling trophies and/or special name of the game in parentheses):
- Nebraska-Oklahoma
- Nebraska-Colorado
- Nebraska-Missouri (Missouri-Nebraska Bell)
- Iowa State-Missouri (The Telephone Trophy)
- Colorado-Colorado State (The Rocky Mountain Showdown, played in Denver)
- Missouri-Kansas (The Border Showdown -- Changed from the "Border War" on October 4, 2004 due to the September 11th terrorist attacks)
- Kansas-Kansas State (The Governor's Cup)
- Kansas State-Nebraska
- Kansas State-Missouri
- Iowa-Iowa State (Cy-Hawk Trophy)
- Oklahoma-Oklahoma State (The Bedlam Series)
- Texas-Baylor
- Baylor-Texas A&M (The Battle on The Brazos)
- Texas-Oklahoma (The Red River Shootout, played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, with the winner getting the Golden Hat)
- Texas-Texas A&M (The Lone Star Showdown)
- Texas Tech-Texas
- Texas Tech-Texas A&M
- Texas A&M-Oklahoma
National Championships
The following is a list of all the national championships held by member schools. Only championships 1996 and later should be counted towards the Big 12 total itself (34).
| Football (17): 1939 - Texas A&M |
Baseball (10): 1949 - Texas Men's Basketball (4): |
Women's Basketball (3): 1986 - Texas Women's Bowling (4): Men's Cross Country (6): Women's Cross Country (3): |
Equestrian (1): 2000 - Oklahoma State Men's Golf (12): |
| Men's Gymnastics (16): 1971 - Iowa State |
Men's Indoor Track (4): 1965 - Missouri Women's Indoor Track (7): |
Men's Outdoor Track (3): 1959 - Kansas Women's Outdoor Track (4): |
Men's/Women's Skiing (15): 1959 - Colorado |
| Women's Skiing (1): 1982 - Colorado Softball (4): Men's Swimming (9): |
Women's Swimming (7): 1984 - Texas Men's Tennis (1): Women's Tennis (2): Women's Volleyball (4): |
Wrestling (48): 1928 - Oklahoma State |
1958 - Oklahoma State |
| NCAA Team Titles By Institution (176 total) Oklahoma State - 46 |
NCAA Team Titles Since 1994 (35 total) Texas - 11 |