The Big 12 Conference: A Comprehensive Overview of Football Teams

The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference comprising 16 universities that participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Its members span across ten states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. As one of the Power Four conferences, the Big 12 holds a prominent position in college athletics, characterized by high revenue generation and historical success in football.

Formation and Evolution

The conference was formed in February 1994, and began play in the fall of 1996. The schools that compose the Big 12 Conference, except for Arizona, Arizona State, Brigham Young, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Utah, and West Virginia, were members of either the Big Eight Conference or the Southwest Conference.

Early Years and Conference Realignment

From its inception in 1996 until 2010, the Big 12 was structured into two divisions, each with six teams. Teams played a total of 11 regular season games, including three non-conference matchups and eight conference games per season. The conference games were a combination of five divisional foes and three from the opposing division.

In 2010, significant realignment occurred when Nebraska and Colorado announced their departure for the Big Ten and Pac-10, respectively, effective in 2011. Subsequently, Texas A&M and Missouri revealed their move to the Southeastern Conference (SEC). To address these departures, TCU and West Virginia joined the conference from the Mountain West and Big East, respectively.

In 2021, Oklahoma and Texas announced their intent to join the Southeastern Conference. In response, the Big 12 decided to backfill with the University of Cincinnati, the University of Central Florida, the University of Houston, and Brigham Young University. 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.

Championship Game

From 1996 to 2010, the Big 12 championship was determined in the Big 12 Championship Game. Following the departures of two schools in 2010, the conference discontinued the championship game in favor of a round-robin format to determine the champion. The Big 12 Championship Game was first held by the Big 12 Conference each year from 1996 until 2010 and again starting with the 2017 season. The original championship game pitted the Big 12 North Division champion against the Big 12 South Division champion in a game held after the regular season has been completed. The first championship game was held during the 1996 season in St. Louis. The 2009 and 2010 games were played at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Following the departures of Nebraska and Colorado to the Big Ten and Pac-12 respectively, the Big 12 Championship Game was discontinued. Following an NCAA rule change in 2015 which allows conferences with fewer than 12 members to hold a championship game, the Big 12 elected to return to a postseason championship game to determine the conference champion. Following the completion of the round-robin regular season, the conference's top two teams compete in the championship game.

Member Institutions

The Big 12 Conference consists of 16 full-member universities: Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Brigham Young University (BYU), Central Florida (UCF), Cincinnati, Colorado, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Christian University (TCU), Texas Tech, Utah, West Virginia. All members except TCU are classified by the American Council on Education (ACE) as "R1: Doctoral Universities - Very high research spending and doctorate production".

Football Program Overview

Current Big 12 football teams claim a total of 6 national titles, while previous members of the conference claim an additional 19 titles. The current conference champion is Arizona State, the school's first Big 12 title.

Historical Performance

Since its inception in 1996, the Big 12 championship has been won by nine different schools, three of which no longer belong to the conference. The first football game in conference play was Texas Tech vs.

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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. This format came under considerable criticism, especially from Nebraska and Oklahoma, who were denied a yearly match between two of college football's most storied programs.

Due to the departure of Nebraska and Colorado in 2011, the Big 12 eliminated the divisions (and championship game) and instituted a nine-game round-robin format. With the advent of the College Football Playoff committee looking at teams' strength of schedule for picking the four playoff teams, on December 8, 2015, the Big 12 announced an annual requirement for all Big 12 teams to schedule a non-conference game against a team from the four other Power Five conferences (plus Notre Dame).

The Big 12 has made it to the Playoffs 6 times from 2014 to 2023. The Big 12 Championship Game was approved by all members except Nebraska. It was held each year, commencing with the first match in the 1996 season at the Trans World Dome in St. Louis. Following the 2008 game, the event was moved to the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, being played there in 2009 and 2010. In April 2015, the ACC and the Big 12 developed new rules for the NCAA to deregulate conference championship games.

Bowl Game Affiliations

The Big 12 champion will go to the Sugar Bowl unless selected for the College Football Playoff. In the event that the conference champion is selected for the playoff, the conference runner-up will go to the Sugar Bowl.

Revenue and Sponsorships

Member universities granted their first and second tier sports media rights to the conference for the length of their current TV deals. 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. The Big 12 has 11 official corporate partners: Allstate, Children’s Health, Dr Pepper, Gatorade, Grand Caliber, Old Trapper, On Location, Phillips 66, Sonic Hard Seltzer, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Tickets For Less. 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.

Conference revenue comes from media rights contracts, bowl games, the NCAA, merchandise, licensing, and conference-hosted sporting events. 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.

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. As of October 2012, the University of Kansas' athletic department had not accepted Missouri's invitations to play inter-conference rivalry games, putting the rivalry on hold. 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.

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