Association | NCAA |
---|---|
Founded | February 25, 1994[1] |
Commissioner | Brett Yormark (since 2022) |
Sports fielded |
|
Division | Division I |
Subdivision | FBS |
No. of teams | 16 |
Headquarters | Irving, Texas |
Region | |
Official website | big12sports |
Locations | |
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
The Big 12 is a member of the Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 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.
The Big 12 is one of the Power Four conferences, the four highest-earning and most historically successful FBS football conferences. Power Four conferences are guaranteed at least one bid to a New Year's Six bowl game and have been granted exemptions from certain NCAA rules.
The Big 12 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.[2] Brett Yormark became the commissioner on August 1, 2022.
The Big 12 was founded in February 1994. All eight members of the former Big Eight Conference joined with half the members of the former Southwest Conference (Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech) to form the conference, with play beginning in 1996.[3]
Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah joined the conference on August 2, 2024, as part of a more extensive NCAA conference realignment.[4]
When the Southwest Conference busted and the major four came to the Big Eight ...
Texas and Texas Tech voted...to...join the Big Eight.