Big 12 Conference

The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference of ten schools located in the Central United States, with its headquarters located in Las Colinas, a community in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Irving. It is a member of the NCAA's Division I 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. Member schools are located in Iowa, Kansas, Texas, Texas, and West Virginia.

According to the Big 12 Conference's website, the alternate names "Big Twelve" and "Big XII" are incorrect. The trademarked name of the conference is Big 12 Conference, notwithstanding the Roman numeral XII featured on the conference logo. The current Big 12 Commissioner is Bob Bowlsby.

History
When the Southeastern Conference broke up the College Football Association television deal by creating its own, the Southwest Conference and the Big Eight Conference saw a potential financially beneficial alliance. The two conferences began negotiations in February 1994 with ABC and ESPN. When Texas started to flirt with the idea of joining the Pacific-10 Conference, the Big Eight showed displeasure in Texas' indecisiveness in joining the conference and decided to go about obtaining a new television contract without the SWC. At that time, Texas A&amp;M also was investigating potential membership in the SEC.

Texas and Texas A&M ran into political roadblocks in regards to leaving the SWC and the other Texas schools to fend for themselves. Texas lawmakers tried to find a way to include as many Texas schools as possible in the new conference. Texas also faced roadblocks to joining the Pac-10 geographically and the fact that the Pac-10 had no interest in the other Texas schools.

Ultimately, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor received invitations to join the Big Eight, which expanded to become the Big 12 Conference. The conference was officially formed on February 25, 1994, when four schools in Texas from the Southwest Conference joined the Big Eight Conference. Charter members of the Big 12 included: Baylor University, University of Colorado, Iowa State University, University of Kansas, Kansas State University, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, University of Texas, Texas A&M University, and Texas Tech University.

Further expansion was explored, with Brigham Young University and the University of New Mexico also under consideration. The Big 12 also trademarked Big 14 in case of future conference expansion. Three months after formation, the schools decided to name the newly formed conference the Big 12 Conference.

Athletic competition in the conference commenced on August 31, 1996. Although at the time of its formation the Big 12 was composed of the old Big Eight plus the four Texas schools, it regards itself as a separate conference, not an enlarged Big Eight, and it does not claim the Big Eight's history as its own. However, several college sports history sources consider both conferences as a single continuous operation dating to 1907. From the conference's formation until the 2010–11 season, the Big 12 was split into two divisions for most major sports: the Texas schools plus Oklahoma and Oklahoma State making up the South Division, and the remaining six former Big Eight Conference teams - Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, and Nebraska - constituting the North Division.

During the 2010–12 NCAA conference realignment, the Big 12 was arguably the most heavily impacted all-sports conference when Colorado announced plans to join the Pac-10 followed by Nebraska accepting an invitation to the Big Ten Conference. This effectively forced the discontinuation of the divisional format, because the NCAA only allows football playoffs in conferences with at least twelve teams. The Conference retained the "Big 12" name and logo despite dropping to ten teams, a decision ostensibly similar to the Big Ten Conference's choice to keep its name after its membership increased first to eleven and then to twelve.