Big Ten Conference

"Big Ten" redirects here. For other uses, see Big Ten (disambiguation).

The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Most of its 18 member institutions are in the Midwestern United States. The conference footprint expanded to the country's Pacific coast in 2024.

Big Ten Conference logo

Members

Institution	Location	Founded	Joined Conference	Affiliation	Enrollment	Nickname	Varsity Teams	NCAA Championships (as of January 1, 2014) (excludes football)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	Urbana and Champaign, Illinois	1867	1896	Public	42,728	Fighting Illini	21	18
Indiana University Bloomington	Bloomington, Indiana	1820	1899 (Athletics 1900)	Public	39,990	Hoosiers	24	24
University of Iowa	Iowa City, Iowa	1848	1899 (Athletics 1900)	Public	30,409	Hawkeyes	24	25
MarylandUniversity of Maryland, College Park	College Park, Maryland	1856	2014	Public	37,631	Terrapins	20	25
University of Michigan	Ann Arbor, Michigan	1817	1896 Inactive 1907-1916	Public	40,025	Wolverines	27	35
Michigan State University	East Lansing, Michigan	1855	1950 (Athletics 1953)	Public	45,520	Spartans	25	19
University of Minnesota	Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota	1851	1896	Public	51,194	Golden Gophers	23	17
University of Nebraska–Lincoln	Lincoln, Nebraska	1869	2011	Public	24,593	Cornhuskers	21	17
Northwestern University	Evanston, Illinois	1851	1896	Private/Non-sectarian	13,407	Wildcats	19	8
Ohio State University	Columbus, Ohio	1870	1912	Public	52,568	Buckeyes	35	25
Pennsylvania State University	University Park, Pennsylvania	1855	1990 (Athletics 1993)	Public	42,914*	Nittany Lions (Lady Lions for women's basketball only)	31	43
Purdue University	West Lafayette, Indiana	1869	1896	Public	39,333	Boilermakers	18	3
Rutgers University	New Brunswick and Piscataway, New Jersey	1766	2014	Public	41,565	Scarlet Knights	27	1
University of Wisconsin	Madison, Wisconsin	1848	1896	Public	41,466	Badgers	23	28

Newest members

The Big Ten added four members after the 2023–24 school year, all from the Pac-12 Conference.

Institution	Location	Founded	Joining Conference	Affiliation	Enrollment	Nickname	Varsity Teams	NCAA Championships (as of 2022–23) (excludes football)
University of Oregon	Eugene, Oregon	1876	2024	Public	23,202	Ducks	20	34
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)	Los Angeles, California	1919	2024	Public	45,900	Bruins	25	121
University of Southern California (USC)	Los Angeles, California	1880	2024	Private	49,500	Trojans	23	112
University of Washington	Seattle, Washington	1861	2024	Public	49,522	Huskies	22	9

Associate members

The Big Ten gained its first "associate member"—i.e., a school playing only a small number of sports (in this case, one) in the conference—in 2014. The same school brought a second sport into the Big Ten in 2016. A second school became an associate member in 2017.

School	Location	Founded	Joined	Type (affiliation)	Enrollment	Nickname	Big Ten sports	Main Conference
Johns Hopkins University	Baltimore, Maryland	1876	2014	Private (nonsectarian)	5,066	Blue Jays	Men's lacrosse	Centennial Conference (Div. III)
			2016				Women's lacrosse
University of Notre Dame	Notre Dame, Indiana	1842	2017	Private (Catholic)	11,773	Fighting Irish	Men's ice hockey	ACC