The Big 12 Conference: A Comprehensive Overview

The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States, playing a significant role in the landscape of college sports. Founded in February 1994, the Big 12 is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports and one of the Power Four conferences.

Membership and Geographic Reach

The Big 12 Conference consists of 16 full-member universities, encompassing a diverse geographic footprint across ten states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. The conference includes 3 private universities and 13 public universities.

Current Members

Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ)
University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ)
Baylor University (Waco, TX)
Brigham Young University (Provo, UT)
University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL)
University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH)
University of Colorado Boulder (Boulder, CO)
University of Houston (Houston, TX)
Iowa State University (Ames, IA)
University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS)
Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS)
Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, OK)
Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, TX)
Texas Tech University (Lubbock, TX)
University of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT)
West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV)

All members except TCU are classified by the American Council on Education (ACE) as "R1: Doctoral Universities - Very high research spending and doctorate production".

Historical Context and Expansion

The Big 12 began athletic play in fall 1996, with the Texas Tech vs. From its formation until 2011, its 12 members competed in two divisions in most sports. In 2011, Colorado and Nebraska left the conference to join the Pac-12 and Big Ten, respectively.

On September 10, 2021, the Big 12 announced that invitations had been extended to and accepted by BYU and three members of the American Athletic Conference in Cincinnati, UCF, and Houston. All four schools began competing in Big 12 athletics beginning in summer of 2023. On July 27, 2023, Colorado, a former member of the Big 12, announced it would rejoin the conference from the Pac-12 beginning in the 2024-25 academic year.

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Sports and Championships

The Big 12 Conference sponsors a wide array of sports, with varying levels of participation among its members.

Men's Sports

The only men's sports with full participation by the entire conference are basketball, football, and golf. The Big 12 fields 14 teams for wrestling. Before the conference's 2023 expansion, it had the most competing schools of any Big 12 sport, with 13 members at that time. Rifle is often categorized as a men's sport because the NCAA bylaws that establish scholarship limits for each sport list rifle as a men's sport. Nonetheless, it is an open coed sport in NCAA college athletics, with men's, women's, and coed teams in all NCAA divisions competing against each other. TCU and West Virginia both field coed teams. Through 2017, West Virginia with 19 national titles and TCU with two, together have won over half of the NCAA titles awarded since the inaugural NCAA championship in 1980.

Women's Sports

The women's sports with full participation are basketball, cross country, soccer, tennis, indoor track and outdoor track. Oklahoma State is the only member of the Big 12, or of any power conference, that does not sponsor volleyball. Equestrian (3 full members, 1 affiliate) has the lowest participation, with 4 total members. Beach volleyball (3 full members, 3 affiliates), lacrosse (3 full members, 3 affiliates) and rowing (4 full members, 2 affiliates) follow with 6 total members. Rifle is often categorized as a men's sport because the NCAA bylaws that establish scholarship limits for each sport list rifle as a men's sport. Nonetheless, it is an open coed sport in NCAA college athletics, with men's, women's, and coed teams in all NCAA divisions competing against each other. TCU and West Virginia both field coed teams. Through 2018, West Virginia with 19 national titles and TCU with two, together have won over half of the NCAA titles awarded since the inaugural NCAA championship in 1980.

National Championships

The following is a list of all NCAA, equestrian, and college football championships won by teams that were representing the Big 12 Conference in NCAA-recognized sports at the time of their championship. The most recent Big 12 team to win a national title is Oklahoma State men's cross country in 2025. Only two years of the Big 12's existence has the conference not won at least one team national title, 2007 and 2020. One former member of the conference did not win a National Championship while a member of the Big 12, Missouri. Original members Kansas State and Iowa State have not won a championship while representing the Big 12. The only national championships won by 2012 arrival West Virginia since joining the Big 12 have been in rifle, a sport that the conference has never sponsored.

Conference Titles

In football, divisional titles were awarded based on regular-season conference results, with the teams with the best conference records from the North and South playing in the Big 12 Championship Game from 1996 to 2010. Baseball, basketball, softball, tennis and women's soccer titles are awarded in both regular-season and tournament play. Cross country, golf, gymnastics, swimming and diving, track and field, and wrestling titles are awarded during an annual meet of participating teams. The first football game in conference play was Texas Tech vs. From 1996 to 2010, Big 12 Conference teams played eight conference games a season. Each team faced all five opponents within its own division and three teams from the opposite division.

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Revenue and Finances

Most of the Big 12's revenue comes from its media rights contracts. In 2012, the Big 12 announced a media rights agreement with Fox and ESPN, replacing an ABC/ESPN deal, estimated to be worth $2.6 billion through the 2025 expiration. The two deals pushed the conference per-university payout to approximately $20 million per year, while separating third-tier media rights into separate deals for each university; such contracts secured an additional $6 million to $20 million per university annually. In 2022, the conference renewed its media rights with ESPN and Fox Sports for six seasons starting in 2025-26, with an estimated US$380 million average annual fee, equating to about $31.7 million per school. The contract included a pro-rata clause that increased the conference's fee proportionately if Power conference schools were added.

Significant additional revenue is generated from postseason play by Big 12 teams, including the college football playoff, football bowl games, and NCAA basketball tournament revenue. For the 2023-24 football season, the Big 12 received $79.4 million for participating in the college football playoff. Bowl game revenues vary yearly with team selections; the 2024 Alamo Bowl between BYU, representing the Big 12, and Colorado, who took a Pac-12's spot, paid the conference $9.8 million.

Traditions and Rivalries

The Big 12 is known for rivalries (primarily in football) that mostly predate the conference. The Kansas-Missouri rivalry was the longest running, the longest west of the Mississippi, and the second longest in college football, dating back to the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association before evolving into the Big Eight. It was played 119 times before Missouri left the Big 12. From that time, the University of Kansas' athletic department did not accept Missouri's invitations to play inter-conference rivalry games, putting the rivalry on hold, until men's basketball played in December 2021 and football in September 2025. The rivalry between TCU and Baylor, known as the Revivalry, is also one of the longest running in college football, with the two universities having played each other - largely as Southwest Conference members - 120 times since 1899.

Several schools within the Big 12 also maintain rivalries with schools from other conferences. Iowa State plays the University of Iowa Football Team (the latter from the Big 10 Conference) in football each year for the "Cy-Hawk" trophy. Other rivalries include the Iron Skillet football game between TCU and SMU (of the Atlantic Coast Conference-ACC); and the "War on I-4" football game between UCF and USF (of the American Athletic Conference-AAC).

Basketball Prowess

Considered perhaps the best basketball conference in the country, the Big 12 performs well in the NCAA basketball tournament. As of the end of the 2023-2024 season, nine current Big 12 members are among the teams with the most wins and/or the highest win percentage in NCAA Division 1 men's basketball: Kansas (#2 in wins, #3 in percentage), Cincinnati (#12 wins, #19 percentage), Utah (#15 wins, #22 percentage), BYU (#17 wins, #31 percentage), Arizona (#19 wins, #10 percentage), West Virginia (#20 wins, #36 percentage), Houston (#37 percentage), Oklahoma State (#39 wins), and Kansas State (#42 wins).

From 1996 to 2011, standings in conference play were not split among divisions, although the schedule was structured as if they were. Teams played a home-and-home against teams within their divisions and a single game against teams from the opposite division for a total of 16 conference games. Kansas has the most Big 12 titles, winning or sharing the regular-season title 20 times in the league's 25 seasons, including 13 straight from 2004-05 to 2016-17. The 2002 Jayhawks became the first, and so far only, team to complete an undefeated Big 12 regular season, going 16-0.

Unique Features and Initiatives

Historically, the Big 12 allowed members to monetize TV rights for everything not broadcast on national or regional TV channels (tier 3 rights). Currently, the conference's tier 3 broadcast rights are bundled as part of the television deal extension starting in the 2025-26 school year, with all of the Big 12's tier 3 rights held by ESPN. As such, schools no longer need to find their own broadcast partners for these events; they are all handled by ESPN.

The Big 12 has a sponsorship rights partnership with Learfield IMG College. The Big 12 announced on September 9, 2022, that it appointed WME Sports and IMG Media, Endeavor companies, to facilitate its global content and commercial strategy. Commissioner Brett Yormark stated "We have aligned with a best-in-class team to build a best-in-class business strategy for the Conference". November 14, 2022 Big 12 formed a comprehensive business advisor board composed of over three dozen entrepreneurial icons and respective industry leaders. Soon after Big 12 Conference made a deal with A Bathing Ape (BAPE) for Championship games.

On March 15, 2023, before the NFL draft, the Big 12 announced the first of its kind across all college conferences, being a conference-wide Pro Day. Instead of schools hosting separate pro days for their football players, there will be only one conference-wide scouting event before the 2024 NFL draft. The event will be held at the Dallas Cowboys training complex, Ford Center at The Star. In March, the Big 12 Conference announced a partnership with the legendary Rucker Park for a community engagement event. In June the event was officially announced as "Big 12 Hoops in the Park", to host men's and women's summer exhibition games. Throughout the event, the Big 12 is also preparing a number of entertainment activities and community engagements.

Individual University Highlights

Each university within the Big 12 brings unique strengths and characteristics to the conference.

Arizona State University: Known for its innovation and sustainability, ASU has a large undergraduate population. Tempe hosts the main campus and university administration.
University of Arizona: A well-known research university with strong research initiatives in space exploration and biosciences.
Baylor University: A faith-based, Baptist institution with a deep commitment to community service. Top programs include nursing, biology, and accounting.
BYU: A private research university affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), emphasizing values aligned with the LDS church including a strict honor code.
University of Central Florida: A large research university known for photonics, space science, and biomedical sciences, with strong partnerships with local government agencies and industries.
University of Cincinnati: One of the oldest institutions in higher education in the United States, with research centers focusing on aerospace engineering, medicine, and environmental science.
University of Colorado Boulder: A public research institution known for its strong engineering and science programs, especially in Earth and space sciences.
University of Houston: Located in Houston, Texas, providing students with ample academic growth opportunities.
Iowa State University: Known for its beautiful campus and excellent STEM programs and research opportunities. Engineering is a popular major, with a strong Greek life presence. Iowa State discontinued its participation in baseball as an NCAA-recognized activity following the 2001 season. It participates in club baseball as a member of the National Club Baseball Association.
University of Kansas: A top research institution with a strong track record of scientific innovation, offering nearly 200 undergraduate degrees.
Kansas State University: The oldest public university in Kansas, offering more than 250 undergraduate degrees, with agricultural sciences being a top program.
Oklahoma State University: Features top programs in agricultural sciences, engineering, and information technology, with a strong alumni network.
TCU: A private Big 12 school, and the biggest university associated with the Christian Church, open to students of all faiths.
Texas Tech University: A large research university with over 150 undergraduate degrees across 13 schools, widely recognized for diversity and inclusion efforts.
University of Utah: A public research university known for its programs in medicine, law, engineering, and computer science.
West Virginia University: Divided into 15 colleges, with a strong engineering school. Known for its Center for Service and Learning, which offers class credit for community service.

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