Vintage 1996 Big Ten Conference Women's Basketball Tournament Lapel Pin 

NCAA March Madness

Lapel Pin Dimensions (approx.): Height 2cm x Width 3cm   

Near Mint - Mint Condition / High Quality

1996 Penn State 71–69 Purdue Angie Potthoff, Penn State Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana

The Big Ten Conference women's basketball tournament is held annually at the end of the women's college basketball regular season. The tournament has been played each year since 1995. The winner of the tournament is designated the Big Ten Tournament Champion, and receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA women's basketball tournament. The tournament is typically held the first week of March with games played Wednesday thru Sunday.

The Big Ten did not begin sponsoring women's basketball until the 1982–83 basketball season. In February 1982 during the 1981–82 season, the conference held a tournament at Michigan State in which Ohio State defeated Illinois 69–66 in the championship game. The conference has listed this in some publications as a regular season championship.

Maryland and Rutgers joined the Big Ten Conference for the 2014–15 season bringing the conference to 14 teams. The 2015 Big Ten Conference tournament was the first for each school with Maryland winning their first tournament title in their debut season.

Originally, Big Ten Network broadcast the first round, second round, quarterfinals and semifinals of the tournament, with the championship game on the ESPN family of networks. Starting in 2024, the first round will air on Peacock and the final will air on CBS.[1]

The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1896, it predates the founding of its regulating organization, the NCAA. It is based in the Chicago area in Rosemont, Illinois. For many decades the conference consisted of 10 prominent universities, which accounts for its name. As of 2014, it consists of 14 member institutions and 2 affiliate institutions, with 4 new member institutions scheduled to join in 2024.[1][2] The conference competes in the NCAA Division I and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, the highest level of NCAA competition in that sport.

Big Ten member institutions are major research universities with large financial endowments and strong academic reputations. A large student body is a hallmark of its universities, as 12 of the 14 members enroll more than 30,000 students. They are all public universities except founding member Northwestern University as the lone private university, but will be joined by private University of Southern California at the beginning of the 2024–25 collegiate athletic year. Collectively, Big Ten universities educate more than 520,000 total students and have 5.7 million living alumni.[1] The members engage in $9.3 billion in funded research each year;[2] 13 out of 14 are members of the Association of American Universities and all are members of the Universities Research Association (URA). All Big Ten universities are also members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, formerly the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.[3]

Although the Big Ten has primarily been a Midwestern conference for nearly a century, the conference's geographic footprint has extended from the Mid-Atlantic to the Great Plains since 2014, and will also have a presence in the West Coast with the addition of four former Pac-12 Conference schools in 2024.[4]

Big Ten Full members:
Rutgers
Maryland
Penn State
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Indiana
Purdue
Illinois
Northwestern
Wisconsin
Iowa
Minnesota
Nebraska

Big Ten Future Full members:
USC
UCLA
Oregon
Washington

On June 30, 2022, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (USC) announced plans to withdraw from the Pac-12 Conference to join the Big Ten in 2024 as full members.[6] On August 4, 2023, the University of Oregon and the University of Washington also announced their withdrawal from the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten on August 2, 2024.[7]

History

Early history

As intercollegiate football rapidly increased during the 1890s, so did the ruthless nature of the game. Tempers flared, fights erupted, and injuries soared. Between 1880 and 1905, college football players suffered more than 325 deaths and 1,149 injuries. To deal with mounting criticism of the game, Purdue University president James Henry Smart[9] invited the presidents of the University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Lake Forest College, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, and University of Wisconsin to a meeting in Chicago on January 11, 1895, to create policies aimed at regulating intercollegiate athletics. The eligibility of student-athletes was one of the main topics of discussion.[10] The Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives was founded at a second meeting on February 8, 1896.[11] Lake Forest was not at the 1896 meeting and was replaced by the University of Michigan. At the time, the organization was more commonly known as the Western Conference, consisting of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Chicago, Purdue, and Northwestern. These schools were the original seven members.

The conference is one of the nation's oldest, predating the founding of the NCAA by a decade and was one of the first collegiate conferences to sponsor men's basketball. The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association was also established in 1895; its successor, the Southern Conference, eventually spawned the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The first reference to the conference as the Big Nine was in 1899 after Iowa and Indiana had joined. Nebraska first petitioned to join the league in 1900 and again in 1911,[12] but was turned away both times.

In 1905, the conference was officially incorporated as the "Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives".[9]

In April 1907, Michigan was voted out of the conference for refusing to adhere to league rules limiting football teams to no more than five games and players to three years of eligibility.[13] Ohio State joined in 1912. The first known references to the conference as the Big Ten were in December 1916, when Michigan rejoined the conference after a nine-year absence.[14][15]

1940s: Chicago Leaves and Michigan State Joins

The conference was again known as the Big Nine after the University of Chicago decided to de-emphasize varsity athletics just after World War II. In 1939 UChicago President Robert Maynard Hutchins made the decision to abolish the football program, based on his negative views of big-time college football's excesses and associated problems of the time.[16] Chicago withdrew from the conference in 1946 after struggling to obtain victories in many conference matchups. It was believed that one of several schools, notably Iowa State, Marquette, Michigan State, Nebraska, Notre Dame, and Pittsburgh would replace Chicago at the time.[17] On May 20, 1949,[11] Michigan State ended the speculation by joining and the conference was again known as the Big Ten.[clarification needed] The Big Ten's membership would remain unchanged for the next 40 years. The conference's official name throughout this period remained the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives. It did not formally adopt the name Big Ten until 1987, when it was incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation.

1990 expansion: Penn State

In 1990, the Big Ten universities voted to expand the conference to 11 teams and extended an invitation to Atlantic 10 member and football independent Pennsylvania State University, which accepted it.[18] When Penn State joined in 1990, it was decided the conference would continue to be called the Big Ten, but its logo was modified to reflect the change; the number 11 was disguised in the negative space of the traditionally blue "Big Ten" lettering.

Missouri showed interest in Big Ten membership after Penn State joined.[19] Around 1993, the league explored adding Kansas, Missouri and Rutgers or other potential schools, to create a 14-team league with two football divisions.[20] These talks died when the Big Eight Conference merged with former Southwest Conference members to create the Big 12.

Following the addition of Penn State, efforts were made to encourage the University of Notre Dame, at that time the last remaining non-service academy independent, to join the league. In 1999, Notre Dame and the Big Ten entered into private negotiations concerning a possible membership that would include Notre Dame. Although Notre Dame's faculty senate endorsed the idea with a near-unanimous vote, the school's board of trustees decided against joining the conference.[21] (In 1926, Notre Dame had briefly considered official entry into the Big Ten but chose to retain its independent status.[22]) Notre Dame subsequently joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in all sports except football, in which Notre Dame maintains its independent status as long as it plays at least five games per season against ACC opponents. This was believed to be the major stumbling block to Notre Dame joining the Big Ten, as Notre Dame wanted to retain its independent home game broadcasting contract with NBC Sports, while the Big Ten insisted upon a full membership with no special exemptions.

2010–2014 expansion: Nebraska, Maryland, Rutgers

Main article: 2010–2014 Big Ten Conference realignment

In December 2009, Big Ten Conference commissioner Jim Delany announced that the league was looking to expand in what would later be part of a nationwide trend as part of the 2010–2014 NCAA conference realignment.[23] On June 11, 2010, the University of Nebraska applied for membership in the Big Ten and was unanimously approved as the conference's 12th school, which became effective July 1, 2011.[24] The conference retained the name "Big Ten". This briefly led to the interesting and ironic result of the Big Ten consisting of twelve teams, and the Big 12 consisting of ten teams (with fellow former Big 12 member Colorado's move to the Pac-12 Conference). As part of the agreement to join the Big Ten, Nebraska would not receive a full share of the media revenue for the first six years of its membership, until fall 2017.[25]

Legends and Leaders divisions

On September 1, 2010, Delany revealed the conference's football divisional split, but noted that the division names would be announced later. Those division names, as well as the conference's new logo, were made public on December 13, 2010. For its new logo, the conference replaced the "hidden 11" logo with one that uses the "B1G" character combination in its branding. Delany did not comment on the logo that day, but it was immediately evident that the new logo would "allow fans to see 'BIG' and '10' in a single word."[26]

For the new football division names, the Big Ten was unable to use geographic names, because they had rejected a geographic arrangement. Delany announced that the new divisions would be known as the "Legends Division" and "Leaders Division". In the Legends division were Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Northwestern. The Leaders division was composed of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin. Conference officials stated they had focused on creating competitive fairness rather than splitting by geographical location.[27] However, the new "Legends" and "Leaders" divisions were not met with enthusiasm. Some traditional rivals, including Ohio State and Michigan, were placed in separate divisions.[28]

For the football season, each team played the others in its division, one "cross-over" rivalry game, and two rotating cross-divisional games. At the end of the regular season the two division winners met in a new Big Ten Football Championship Game.[29] The Legends and Leaders divisional alignment was in effect for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 football seasons.

Maryland and Rutgers join

On November 19, 2012, the University of Maryland's Board of Regents voted to withdraw from the ACC and join the Big Ten as its 13th member effective on July 1, 2014.[30] The Big Ten's Council of Presidents approved the move later that day.[31] One day later, Rutgers University of the Big East also accepted an offer for membership from the Big Ten as its 14th member school.[32] Like Nebraska, both schools would not receive full shares of the media revenue until six years after they joined. However, both schools took loans from the conference, thus pushing back the date they would receive full shares.[25]

West and East divisions

On April 28, 2013, the Big Ten presidents and chancellors unanimously approved a football divisional realignment that went into effect when Maryland and Rutgers joined in 2014.[33] Under the new plan, the Legends and Leaders divisions were replaced with geographic divisions.[33] The West Division includes Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin (of which all but Purdue are in the Central Time Zone), while the East Division includes Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers (all of which are in the Eastern Time Zone). The final issue in determining the new divisions was which of the two Indiana schools would be sent to the West; Purdue was chosen because its West Lafayette campus is geographically west of Indiana's home city of Bloomington.[34] The divisional alignment permanently protected the cross-divisional football rivalry Indiana–Purdue.[33] As before, the two division winners play each other in the Big Ten Football Championship Game.

Affiliate members join

On June 3, 2013, the Big Ten announced the sponsorship of men's and women's lacrosse. For any conference to qualify for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, at least six member schools must play the sport. In women's lacrosse, the addition of Maryland and Rutgers to the Big Ten brought the conference up to the requisite six participants, joining programs at Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State and Penn State.[35] In men's lacrosse, Ohio State and Penn State were the only existing participants. Coincident with the addition of Maryland and Rutgers, Michigan agreed to upgrade its successful club team to varsity status, giving the Big Ten five sponsoring schools, one short of the minimum six for an automatic bid. Johns Hopkins University opted to join the conference as its first affiliate member beginning in 2014. Johns Hopkins had been independent in men's lacrosse for 130 years, claiming 44 national championships.[36] As long-time independents joined conferences (for example, Syracuse joining the Atlantic Coast Conference), other schools competing as independents in some cases concluded that the inability to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament was becoming a more serious competitive disadvantage in scheduling and recruiting.

On March 23, 2016, the Big Ten Conference and Notre Dame announced the Fighting Irish would become a men's ice hockey affiliate beginning with the 2017–18 season.[37] Notre Dame had been a member of Hockey East, and the move would save travel time and renew rivalries with former CCHA and WCHA members.

In 2013, the conference moved its headquarters from its location in Park Ridge, Illinois to neighboring Rosemont. The office building is situated within Rosemont's Parkway Bank Park Entertainment District (then named MB Financial Park Entertainment District), alongside Interstate 294.[38][39][40]

2021–2024 Pacific Expansion

Main article: 2021–2024 NCAA conference realignment

On June 30, 2022, UCLA and USC announced that they will be joining the Big Ten Conference effective August 2, 2024, enabling both schools to remain in the Pac-12 Conference for the duration of the Pac-12's existing media rights agreements.[6][41] Unlike the prior expansion with Nebraska, Rutgers, and Maryland, USC and UCLA would join with a full share of the media revenue from the start of their Big Ten tenure.[25]

In August 2022, the conference reached new media rights deals with CBS, Fox, and NBC totaled at an estimated $7 billion.[42][43][44][45]

On August 4, 2023, Oregon and Washington announced that they would join the Big Ten Conference alongside UCLA and USC.[46] Unlike UCLA and USC, the two schools would receive a reduced media revenue share of $30 million each, with the share increasing by $1 million for each school each year, through the 2029-30 season. Rather than reducing the other conference members' revenue shares, Fox is contributing the necessary money.[47] The schools will receive a full share with the next media deal.[48]

Football: the return of no divisions

In June 2023 – after UCLA and USC were confirmed as incoming members but before Oregon and Washington were added – the conference announced that starting in 2024, the East and West divisions for football would be eliminated. Each team would play nine conference games and three non-conference games, as before. Within a four-year period, each team would play at least two games against every other team – one at home and one away. This plan called for 11 protected matchups to take place every year; these included Michigan–Ohio State and ten other regional rivalries. At the end of each season, the top two teams in the conference standings would oppose each other in the Big Ten Football Championship Game.[49]

The addition of Oregon and Washington added one more protected matchup to this count, bringing the total to 12 protected matchups: Illinois-Northwestern, Illinois-Purdue, Indiana-Purdue, Iowa-Minnesota, Iowa-Nebraska, Iowa-Wisconsin, Maryland-Rutgers, Michigan-Michigan State, Michigan-Ohio State, Minnesota-Wisconsin, Oregon-Washington and UCLA-USC, leaving Penn State as the lone school with no protected matchups. The schedule was also updated so that teams will play every other conference opponent at least twice – once home and once away – and will play rotating opponents no more than three times in a five-year period.[50]

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