Big 12 Conference

BIG 12

CONFERENCE

The Big 12 is in its 25th year in 2020-21, as it continues to promote the strength and success of one of the nation’s premier athletic conferences under the direction of seventh-year commissioner Bob Bowlsby. TCU and West Virginia joined the league on July 1, 2012 and became the Big 12’s first additions since inception, joining Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas Tech.

With 10 members, the Big 12 remains as the only autonomy conference to determine its champions in all sports directly on the field of play with a full round-robin schedule. The Conference’s hard work ethic and strong values have translated to enormous success in its first 22 years. Since it began competition in 1996-97, the league can boast of 60 NCAA team titles and 654 individual national championships. The Big 12 has been at the forefront in college athletics reform, specifically with student-athlete welfare issues to include cost of attendance, student-athlete time demands and strengthening its policy for concussion diagnosis and management. In 2014-15, the Big 12 introduced and hosted three “State of Collegiate Athletics” forums to examine the issues facing college athletics. Two were conducted in Washington, D.C and one in New York City. Panelists included respected authorities from intercollegiate athletics, university leadership and sports journalism. The third forum featured a special session comprised of student-athletes. The Big 12 has continued the “State of Collegiate Athletics” forums the past four seasons with Dallas serving as the host site for three events and one staged in Atlanta. Big 12 Champions for Life, an initiative of the Big 12 Conference, will begin its fourth year in 2018-19. It features student-athletes, selected by Conference institutions, in a series of public service announcements highlighting the positive impact an athletics scholarship has had on their lives leading to stories of personal growth and success. The Big 12 was the only conference in 2017-18 that placed a team in the College Football Playoff (Oklahoma), Men’s Final Four (Kansas), Men’s College World Series (Texas and Texas Tech) and Women’s College World Series (Oklahoma). National championships were won by Texas men’s swimming & diving and Oklahoma State men’s golf. UT’s title was its fourth-consecutive while the Big 12 picked up its second straight men’s golf crown with Oklahoma winning it in 2017. Of the eight teams that advanced to match play in the men’s golf championship, half of the field represented the Big 12.