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94-669: The league was initially founded as the Midwest Basketball Conference (MBC) in 1935. It changed its name in 1937 in an attempt to attract a larger audience and avoid confusion with the Big Ten Conference , ofted referred to as the Midwest Conference. The league was created by three corporations: General Electric , Firestone and Goodyear . It was primarily made up of Great Lakes area small-market and corporate teams. The league began rather informally. Scheduling

188-649: A 14-team league with two football divisions. 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

282-658: A drive to form a league which would have been called the Western Basketball Association, consisting of eight to 10 teams and seeking two other NBA castoffs: the Waterloo Hawks and the Anderson Packers. Competition from the NBA became too great, however, and the effort failed. The Red Skins played one season of independent basketball, in 1951–52, before dissolving. Bobby Cook, who had scored an NBA-record 44 points in

376-509: A failed attempt to seek a significantly larger rights fee from ESPN to renew its existing agreements. This came to fruition in 2006, when the conference announced the formation of a dedicated cable network, Big Ten Network , in a 20-year partnership with Fox Sports , which would officially launch in 2007. The network carries coverage of Big Ten athletics (including events not carried by the Big Ten's other media partners), studio shows, as well as other original programs and documentaries profiling

470-603: A former Big Ten Conference member, was a member of the CIC from 1958 to June 29, 2016. Total revenue includes ticket sales, contributions and donations, rights and licensing, student fees, school funds and all other sources including TV income, camp income, concessions, and novelties. Total expenses includes coach and staff salaries, scholarships, buildings and grounds, maintenance, utilities and rental fees, recruiting, team travel, equipment and uniforms, conference dues, and insurance. The following table shows institutional reporting to

564-425: A local furniture store and funeral parlor, began in 1933; local tailor and dry cleaner Art Imig took over in 1935, and gelatin producer Enzo-Pac sponsored the team two years later. Brothers Johnny and Joe "Scoop" Posewitz , Les Kuplic , Slim Lonsdorf , Carl Roth , Pete and Dugan Norris, and John Cinealis were among the better Sheboygan players during the decade. The 6-foot-6-inch (198 cm) Jack Mann, one of

658-597: 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 . On June 30, 2022, UCLA and USC announced that they would be joining

752-405: A nationwide trend as part of the 2010–2014 NCAA conference realignment . 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. 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

846-621: 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. (In 1926, Notre Dame had briefly considered official entry into the Big Ten but chose to retain its independent status. ) 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

940-860: A professional basketball team based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin , which was an original National Basketball Association franchise during the 1949–50 season . The Redskins played in three professional leagues and as an independent team. The leagues were, in order, the National Basketball League (NBL); the National Basketball Association (charter member), and the National Professional Basketball League (NPBL). The team originated in 1933 from informal clubs which were sponsored by local businesses. During their first few years of existence, they would primarily play under

1034-558: A rugged 6' 4" (1.93 m) center named Leroy "Cowboy" Edwards . Edwards was a consensus NCAA "All American" and Helms Foundation "College Player of the Year" as a member of the 1934–35 University of Kentucky Wildcats . He left Kentucky after two years to pursue a professional basketball career, which was unheard of at the time. He led the NBL in scoring for three consecutive seasons, 1937–1940. He set numerous NBL and professional basketball scoring records and

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1128-584: A spot opposite the Oshkosh All-Stars in the 1941 NBL finals. Zummach (an assistant coach at Marquette University for six seasons) formed his team around Marquette alumni, including All-American Dave Quabius, Glenn R. "Sparky" Adams, George Hesik, Bill McDonald and Paul Sokody. Sandlotter Otto Kolar, from Cicero, Illinois , was rated one of the Midwest's best guards and ran the Red Skins offense. The Red Skins left

1222-521: Is generally credited with the introduction of the "3 second rule" in basketball which is still in existence today. Edwards played in all 12 NBL seasons with the Oshkosh All-Stars, and retired just prior to its merger with the BAA to form the NBA. The Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons —so nicknamed because they were owned by Fred Zollner , whose company made pistons for engines—were led by tough veteran Bobby McDermott . The Pistons finished second in 1942 and 1943 and won

1316-606: Is membership in the Association of American Universities . The office of the commissioner of athletics was created in 1922 "to study athletic problems of the various member universities and assist in enforcing the eligibility rules which govern Big Ten athletics." All Big Ten members are members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance , formerly known as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. The University of Chicago ,

1410-561: Is the only full member to have permanently left the Big Ten Conference. Full members  Full members (non-football)  Sport affiliate  Other conference  Other conference  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

1504-468: The Association of American Universities is "an important part of who we are." All current members of the Big Ten, other than the University of Nebraska-Lincoln , are members of the AAU. Nebraska was a member of the AAU when it was admitted to the Big Ten, but lost this status shortly afterwards. The following table shows National University rank by U.S. News & World Report as of 2023 . Also indicated

1598-615: The Big Ten Academic Alliance , formerly the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. Although the Big Ten was primarily a Midwestern conference for nearly a century, the conference's geographic footprint has extended from the Mid-Atlantic to the Great Plains since 2014. In 2024, the conference gained a presence in the West Coast with the addition of four former Pac-12 Conference schools. Notes: Notes The University of Chicago

1692-702: The Brooklyn Dodgers . Neither team fared well. Toledo signed several black players to start the season, including Bill Jones , who had starred at the University of Toledo , but the team lost its first four games and folded due to financial difficulties. Chicago stocked its roster with several members of the Harlem Globetrotters , who worked during the week at the Studebaker plant, but it also folded after compiling an 8–15 record. Five current National Basketball Association (NBA) teams trace their history back to

1786-553: The Chicago Herald American . NBL teams won seven out of ten editions of the tournament. On August 3, 1949, representatives from the 12-year-old NBL and 3 year old BAA met at the BAA offices in New York's Empire State Building to finalize a merger. Maurice Podoloff , the president of BAA, became the president of the NBA while Ike Duffey , president of the NBL, became the chairman. The new National Basketball Association (NBA)

1880-505: 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 15 of the 18 members enroll more than 30,000 students. They are all public universities except Northwestern University and

1974-804: The National AAU Basketball League (NABL). The Wingfoots are still an AAU Elite team in the NABL. Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G , formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference , among others) is the oldest NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States . Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1896, it predates

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2068-603: The Oshkosh All-Stars and their center Leroy "Cowboy" Edwards . The middle years saw the emergence of the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons , who were later instrumental in the survival of the NBA during its infancy. The final period of note during the NBL's existence centered on George Mikan and the emergence of the big man in basketball. The Oshkosh All-Stars appeared in the championship series for five consecutive years (1938–42). They won two titles, they were led by

2162-648: The United States Department of Education as shown on the DOE Equity in Athletics website for the 2022–23 academic year. The following table shows revenue specifically from NCAA / Conference Distributions, Media Rights, and Post-Season Football reported by the Knight Commission for the 2021–22 academic year. Commissioner Jim Delany began to explore the formation of a Big Ten-specific channel in 2004 after

2256-515: The University of Southern California , both private universities . Collectively, Big Ten universities educate more than 520,000 total students and have 5.7 million living alumni. The members engage in $ 9.3 billion in funded research each year; 17 out of 18 are members of the Association of American Universities (except Nebraska) and the Universities Research Association (except USC). All Big Ten universities are also members of

2350-510: The 1,500-seat Eagles Auditorium in downtown Sheboygan in late 1942 and moved into the 3,500-seat Sheboygan Municipal Auditorium and Armory , five blocks away near Lake Michigan . The Eagles Auditorium, part of the Playdium building, was destroyed by fire in 1977. Known as "the Armory," the armory was a WPA project and contained the NBL's largest floor at the time: 90 by 50 feet (27 by 15 m). It

2444-522: The 1946–47 season, the Red Skins were the first NBL team to fly to the West Coast. They played at Los Angeles' Grand Olympic Auditorium and lost two close games to the Los Angeles Red Devils , whose best player was UCLA alumnus Jackie Robinson ; the following spring, Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. Sheboygan finished the season with a 26–18 record (two games behind first-place Oshkosh in

2538-596: The 1949–50 NBL season. When the NBL and BAA merged, this team joined the NBA without playing a single NBL game. Also still surviving are the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots , the initial NBL champion in 1938. The Wingfoots suspended operations for World War II and were not included in the NBL/BAA merger. Instead, they remained in the National Industrial Basketball League (NIBL), which in 1961 became

2632-515: The 1949–50 season was on January 5, 1950, when they defeated George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers 85–82 in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 3,800 fans at the Armory. Four future Hall of Famers were on the floor for Minneapolis that Thursday night: Mikan (who scored 42 points), Jim Pollard , Vern Mikkelsen and Slater Martin . The Lakers' coach was Hall of Famer John Kundla . The victory against that season's eventual NBA champion gave

2726-546: The 2007–08 season and ending with the 2016–17 season that would split Big Ten coverage among the ESPN networks, CBS Sports, and Big Ten Network, thus ending Comcast Chicago's regional coverage of the conference. In 2010, the Big Ten announced the creation of the Big Ten Football Championship game starting with the 2011 season and signed a broadcast deal with Fox to broadcast the game from 2011 through 2016. In 2016,

2820-548: The 2023–24 academic year, ending an association between the conference and ESPN dating back to the 1980s. A major goal for the new contracts was to establish specific broadcast windows for Big Ten football games across its three partners, with Fox, CBS, and NBC primarily holding rights to Noon ET, 3:30 p.m. ET, and primetime games, respectively, and the three broadcasters alternating first pick of games. The contracts were estimated to be worth at least $ 7 billion, but also reportedly includes an "escalator clause" that will raise

2914-604: 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. Notre Dame had been

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3008-565: 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. 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

3102-535: The Big Ten Conference alongside UCLA and USC. 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. The schools will receive a full share with the next media deal. In June 2023 – after UCLA and USC were confirmed as incoming members but before Oregon and Washington were added –

3196-599: 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. 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. In August 2022, the conference reached new media rights deals with CBS, Fox, and NBC totaled at an estimated $ 7 billion. On August 4, 2023, Oregon and Washington announced that they would join

3290-453: The Big Ten as its 14th member school. 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. 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. Under

3384-771: The Detroit Vagabond Kings. That franchise was awarded to a famous barnstorming team, the New York Rens , composed entirely of African Americans, to play out the season in Dayton, Ohio , as the Dayton Rens . In 1949, after a three-year battle with the Basketball Association of America (BAA) for fans and players, the NBL merged with the BAA and became the National Basketball Association. A few years after

3478-514: The Milwaukee recreational leagues. Suesens, Lautenschlager, Dick Schulz , Tony Kelly, Al Lucas , Al Moschetti and Bobby Holm were other key Red Skins during this period. The signing of Lucas, Moschetti and Holm by Basketball Hall of Famer Dutch Dehnert in 1944 was the team's first acquisition of a group of name players from the East Coast. Sheboygan lost in the finals to Fort Wayne in 1944 and 1945,

3572-523: The NBA's smallest arena (and market), competed in the 1949–50 season with Suesens as coach and finished with a 22–40 record: fourth place in the six-team Western Division. When Oshkosh folded soon after the merger, Sheboygan became the country's oldest professional basketball franchise. The Red Skins had a 7–2 start with home victories against the Boston Celtics , New York Knicks , Rochester Royals , and Indianapolis Olympians . The most spectacular win of

3666-616: The NBA. The league contracted after the 1949–1950 season, losing six teams; the Anderson Packers , Sheboygan Red Skins and Waterloo Hawks jumped to the NPBL, and the Chicago Stags , Denver Nuggets and St. Louis Bombers folded. The NBA shrank from 17 teams to 11 before the 1950–1951 season began. The Washington Capitols folded midway through the season, reducing the number of teams in the league to ten. The Red Skins did not fit well, left

3760-602: The NBL from 1940 to 1944. In 1946, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) incorporated resulting in a three-year battle with the NBL to win both players and fans. The BAA played its games in larger cities and venues. However, NBL tended to have the bigger stars. NBL teams dominated the World Professional Basketball Tournament , an annual invitational tournament held in Chicago and sponsored by

3854-488: The NBL, such as the Red Skins, Waterloo Hawks and Anderson Packers . Sheboygan withdrew from the NBA on April 24, 1950, and joined the new National Professional Basketball League with several other NBA teams. The NPBL formed around the former NBL/NBA teams, with larger-market teams added. The charter teams were the East Division Red Skins, Anderson Packers, Louisville Alumnites and Grand Rapids Hornets , and

National Basketball League (United States) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3948-1024: The NBL. Three teams joined the BAA in 1948: the Minneapolis Lakers (now the Los Angeles Lakers ), the Rochester Royals (now the Sacramento Kings ), and the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (now the Detroit Pistons ). Two more teams were part of the merger that created the NBA in 1949: the Buffalo Bisons/ Tri-Cities Blackhawks (now the Atlanta Hawks ), and the Syracuse Nationals (now the Philadelphia 76ers ). Five former NBA teams also trace their history back to

4042-633: The NBL: the Anderson Packers , Denver Nuggets , Indianapolis Jets (as the Kautskys), Sheboygan Red Skins and Waterloo Hawks played in the NBL/BAA/NBA. The Jets played in the BAA for the 1948–49 season only; the remaining teams for the 1949–50 season only. Anderson, Sheboygan, and Waterloo joined the National Professional Basketball League in 1950. The NBL also created the Indianapolis Olympians for

4136-559: The Red Skins a 13–13 record, after which injuries took their toll and the team faded. They qualified for the playoffs, however, where they nearly upset the Western Division champion Indianapolis Olympians in a best-of-three series. The team was unwelcome in the NBA during their first season. Ned Irish, president of the New York Knicks , refused to participate in the same league as the "bush leagues": small-city charter NBA teams from

4230-457: The Red Skins finished their 11th season in the NBL with a 35–29 record. Only the Oshkosh All-Stars appeared in more NBL championship series (six) than Sheboygan, or played more seasons in the league (12). The Red Skins made the NBL playoffs eight times and were invited to appear in nearly every prestigious World Pro Tournament held in Chicago . Their best finish in Chicago was in 1939, when they lost

4324-408: The Red Skins. Those teams attempted to recover by forming a new league, but it also only lasted one season. The Red Skins tried to continue, but failed to form another new league and closed after an independent run during the 1951–1952 season. On August 3, 1949, Sheboygan and six other NBL teams merged with the 10-team BAA to become the National Basketball Association . The Red Skins, who played in

4418-466: The West Division Denver Refiners / Evansville Agogans , Saint Paul Lights , Kansas City Hi-Spots and Waterloo Hawks. Sheboygan posted the NPBL's best record (29–16) in 1950–51. Sheboygan and Waterloo finished first in their respective divisions, but the league did not conduct a playoff and dissolved at the end of the regular season. Both teams claimed the championship, based on division play. In mid-1951, longtime Red Skins president Magnus Brinkman led

4512-488: The Western Division), but the Red Skins lost to the All-Stars 49–47 in the fifth – and deciding – game of their first-round playoff. For about a month in December 1947, Hall of Fame player Bobby McDermott was a player-coach for the Red Skins. He was obtained from the Chicago American Gears after the Professional Basketball League of America folded the previous month. McDermott played in 16 games for Sheboygan, scoring 138 points. As coach, he took

4606-518: The Zollner Pistons and Oshkosh for supremacy were the Sheboygan Red Skins . Beginning in 1941, the season before Fort Wayne joined the NBL, Sheboygan appeared in five of six championship series. They lost to Oshkosh in the 1941 finals, beat Fort Wayne for the title in 1943 but lost to the Zollner Pistons in 1944 and 1945, and were swept in the 1946 finals by the league's newest member, the powerhouse Rochester Royals , who boasted Hall of Famers Al Cervi , Bob Davies and Red Holzman . The NBL's third era

4700-423: The conference after a nine-year absence. 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. Chicago withdrew from

4794-402: The conference and its members. The impact of Big Ten Network influenced the conference's expansion in the 2010s, with some of its newer members being located in proximity to major media markets such as Baltimore and Washington, D.C. (Maryland) and the New York metropolitan area (Rutgers). Accompanying the new network announcement was a new ten-year media rights agreement beginning with

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4888-421: The conference announced a new six-year media rights deal worth $ 2.64 billion with Fox Sports, CBS Sports, and ESPN to take effect with the start of the 2017–18 season and ending with the 2022–23 season. The size of the deal translated to a near tripling of the per-school media revenue share. The new deal would see regular season Big Ten football games airing on Fox and Fox Sports 1 for the first time. As part of

4982-458: 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

5076-517: The conference did not actually have the right to offer the game to NBC. Instead, under the terms of the agreement regarding the operation of Big Ten Network, the channel officially owns the conference's TV rights and then sublicenses them out to other channels, thus Fox has a stake in any content BTN sublicenses. The Big Ten Conference sponsors championship competition in 14 men's and 14 women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Notes: Sheboygan Red Skins The Sheboygan Red Skins (or Redskins ) were

5170-436: 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. On May 20, 1949, Michigan State ended the speculation by joining and the conference was again known as the Big Ten. The Big Ten's membership would remain unchanged for

5264-438: The conference was officially incorporated as the "Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives". 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. Ohio State joined in 1912. The first known references to the conference as the Big Ten were in December 1916, when Michigan rejoined

5358-401: 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." For the new football division names, the Big Ten

5452-482: The consolation championship to the Harlem Globetrotters . After the 1948–1949 season, the team went into decline due to changes in professional basketball. Although the rival BAA had formed a few years earlier and the leagues saw an opportunity to expand the game's appeal through a merger, many NBL teams could not compete at the BAA level; they did not have corporate money or a big-city fan base. The mismatch drove many former NBL teams to leave after one season, including

5546-424: The deal, Fox would retain its coverage of the Big Ten Championship as well as obtain priority over ESPN when drafting regular season football games prior to each season. It would also put an end to ESPN's coverage of the Big Ten men's basketball tournament. On August 18, 2022, the Big Ten announced that it had reached seven-year broadcast rights deals with Fox, CBS , and for the first time, NBC Sports , beginning in

5640-536: The end of each season, the top two teams in the conference standings would oppose each other in the Big Ten Football Championship Game . 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

5734-429: The first outstanding Black players in the game, starred at center during the 1936–37 season. In 1937–38, they had a 17–3 record against teams such as the New York Renaissance , Harlem Globetrotters , New York Celtics and Chicago Duffy Florals. The team had a friendly rivalry with the Oshkosh All-Stars . The All-Stars' founder and president was Lon Darling , who helped found the NBL in 1937 and became league president

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5828-472: The fledgling NBL in 1938. Now a full-time professional organization with an extensive traveling schedule, it took more than one local business to support the team. A syndicate of Sheboygan community members incorporated the team as the Red Skins, and they gradually became successful. Before joining the NBL, Sheboygan had developed a reputation in the Midwest during the early 1930s for successful industrial-league and barnstorming teams. The Ballhorns, sponsored by

5922-561: The following year. After the successful 1937–38 season, the Enzo Jels were admitted to the NBL on June 11, 1938, at the league meeting in Oshkosh, Wisconsin with help from Darling. They were soon taken over by a group of local business leaders and renamed the Red Skins. Their first coach was Edwin "Doc" Schutte , a local dentist. After compiling an 11–17 record in his only season, Schutte stepped down to devote more time to his practice. The Red Skins were consistent winners under attorney and coach Frank Zummach from 1939 to 1942, including

6016-403: 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 ten prominent universities, which accounts for its name. On August 2, 2024, the conference expanded to 18 member institutions and 2 affiliate institutions. The conference competes in the NCAA Division I and its football teams compete in

6110-408: The game, Purdue University president James Henry Smart 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

6204-427: The inaugural Naismith Memorial Trophy. After winning their only NBL title, the Red Skins continued to be one of the strongest teams in professional basketball and appeared in the next three championship series (1944, 1945 and 1946) behind Mike Novak  – a 6-foot-9-inch (206 cm) former All-American from Loyola  – and Dancker: a 6-foot-7-inch (201 cm) player who honed his skills in

6298-450: The latter after a 2–0 lead in the best-of-five series. They lost in 1946 to the powerhouse Rochester Royals , who had Hall of Famers Al Cervi , Bob Davies and Red Holzman . Dehnert coached the Red Skins to consecutive divisional titles, leaving after the 1945–46 season to coach the Cleveland Rebels of the Basketball Association of America . Sheboygan remained among the NBL's elite teams, securing playoff berths in 1947 and 1949. Before

6392-482: The league in defense five times, appeared in five championship series and won the 1942–43 title, defeating the league-leading Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (today's Detroit Pistons ) in the finals. They were undone by the merger of the NBL and the BAA. The other league which merged to form the NBA (the Basketball Association of America ) had more money, played in larger cities, and generally fielded better teams. The Red Skins were one of seven franchises which quickly left

6486-399: The league title in 1944 and 1945. Like many teams of that era, it was not uncommon for Fort Wayne to play its games in taverns, armories, high-school gyms or ballrooms. Under Zollner, the Pistons would eventually play an important role in the survival and growth of the NBA. Zollner's financial support of the NBA helped the league stay afloat during its tumultuous formative years. Challenging

6580-413: The league, and joined the short-lived NPBL. When that league folded, the team returned to its independent roots for one more year of play before it also disappeared. The team formed in Sheboygan as the Ballhorns in 1933. Sponsors changed every couple of years, and the team changed its name to match its current sponsor. Successful playing regional rivals and distant touring teams, they were invited to join

6674-406: 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. All current members of the Big Ten are doctorate-granting universities. Former conference commissioner Jim Delany said in 2010 that membership in

6768-428: The main topics of discussion. The Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives was founded at a second meeting on February 8, 1896. 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

6862-643: The merger, the NBA adopted the BAA history as its own. The NBL contributed significantly to the foundation of the NBA, but it also had major accomplishments in other areas, most notably in offering opportunities for African-American players. In the 1942–43 season, with many players in the armed forces, two NBL clubs, the Toledo Jim White Chevrolets and the Chicago Studebakers , filled their rosters by signing African-Americans—five years before Jackie Robinson would break baseball's color barrier with

6956-456: The moniker of the Enzo Jels, but they would also sometimes play under the alternative moniker of "The Ballhorns" (or rather, just Ballhorns) starting in 1934 and in a brief period of time in 1935 played under the moniker of "Art Images" due to their Art Image during that time. They joined the NBL by 1938 as the Red Skins, owned by a syndicate . The Red Skins played in the NBL from 1938 to 1949, led

7050-466: The new "Legends" and "Leaders" divisions were not met with enthusiasm. Some traditional rivals, including Ohio State and Michigan, were placed in separate divisions. 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 . The Legends and Leaders divisional alignment

7144-565: 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 . The divisional alignment permanently protected the cross-divisional football rivalry Indiana–Purdue . As before, the two division winners played each other in the Big Ten Football Championship Game. The West and East divisional alignment

7238-661: The new plan, the Legends and Leaders divisions were replaced with geographic divisions. The West Division included Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin (of which all but Purdue are in the Central Time Zone ), while the East Division included 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

7332-580: 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. In 1990, the Big Ten universities voted to expand the conference to 11 teams and extended an invitation to Atlantic 10 Conference member and football independent Pennsylvania State University , which accepted it. When Penn State joined in 1990, it

7426-537: 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. As long-time independents joined conferences (for example, Syracuse joining

7520-476: 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 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, but was turned away both times. In 1905,

7614-446: The records and statistics of the BAA and NBL prior to the merger in 1949 are considered in official NBA history only if a player, coach, or team participated in the newly formed NBA after 1949 for one or more seasons. The history of the NBL falls into three eras, each contributing significantly to the growth of professional basketball and the emergence of the NBA . The first dynasty centered on

7708-991: The reins from Doxie Moore and had a 4–5 record. Moore resumed coaching Sheboygan after McDermott left to join the Tri-Cities Blackhawks in January 1948. The season was one of the Red Skins' most disappointing; the team was aging and in disarray, with a 23–37 record. In 1948–49 (the NBL's last season) the Red Skins unveiled a fresh group of stars, including Kentucky All-American Bob Brannum, Valparaiso star Milt Schoon, Texas guard Danny Wagner, Washington guard Merlin "Boody" Gilbertson, Iowa center Noble Jorgensen and Wisconsin guard Bobby Cook. With holdovers Mike Todorovich (a first-team NBL pick in 1947–48), Wisconsin forward Paul Cloyd, University of Toledo guard Bob Bolyard, Northwestern football and basketball All-American Max Morris and player-coach Suesens (who had starred at Iowa, where he roomed with Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick),

7802-538: The value of the contracts if the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were to specifically join the Big Ten. Following the deal's signing, it was later revealed that several schools had issues with playing football games at night in November, with some having formal clauses allowing them to veto games in that timeslot. The conference would also have to compensate Fox $ 40 million for the 2026 Big Ten championship game, as

7896-437: Was a significant factor in the team's 1943 NBL title. Jeannette, who worked at a Rochester defense plant and traveled to Sheboygan games primarily on weekends, averaged 15.5 points per game when final scores hovered in the 30s and 40s. Other major contributors to Sheboygan's championship team were NBL rookie of the year Ken Buehler, all-league players Ed Dancker and Ken Suesens , and shooter Rube Lautenschlager. The team received

7990-509: Was added to Wisconsin's register of historic places in 2019. The Red Skins reached their zenith in 1942–43 under coach Carl Roth , who had played for Sheboygan's industrial-league powerhouses during the 1930s and on the first Red Skins team in 1938–39. The late-season acquisition of Hall of Fame guard Buddy Jeannette , who joined Sheboygan for their last four regular-season games and the playoffs and commuted from his home in Rochester, New York ,

8084-401: 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. In December 2009, Big Ten Conference commissioner Jim Delany announced that the league was looking to expand in what would later be part of

8178-403: 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. Around 1993, the league explored adding Kansas , Missouri and Rutgers or other potential schools, to create

8272-551: Was dominated by George Mikan , the 6'10" (2.08 m), three-time NCAA "All-American" center from DePaul University in Chicago. As a rookie, he led the Chicago American Gears to the 1947 NBL title, but before the next season, owner Maurice White pulled his team out of the league and formed his own 24-team circuit called the Professional Basketball League of America . That venture quickly failed, and Mikan

8366-531: Was in effect for ten football seasons, from 2014 through 2023. 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. In men's lacrosse, Ohio State and Penn State were

8460-550: Was in effect for the 2011 , 2012 and 2013 football seasons. 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. The Big Ten's Council of Presidents approved the move later that day. One day later, Rutgers University of the Big East also accepted an offer for membership from

8554-588: Was left to the discretion of each of the teams, as long as the team played at least ten games and four of them were on the road. Games played increased yearly as the popularity of professional basketball and the NBL grew in America. Games consisted either of four ten-minute quarters or three fifteen-minute periods. The choice was made by the home team. Some of the teams were independent, while others were owned by companies that also found jobs for their players. Chicago newspaper sports editor Leo Fischer acted as president of

8648-510: Was made up of 17 teams that represented both small towns and large cities across the country. The NBA claims the BAA's history as its own and considers the 1949 deal as an expansion, not a merger. For example, at NBA History online, its table of one-line "NBA Season Recaps" begins 1946–47 without comment. It celebrated "NBA at 50" in 1996, with announcement of its 50 Greatest Players among other things. The NBA does not recognize NBL records and statistics except under certain circumstances. As such,

8742-522: Was signed by the NBL's Minneapolis Lakers , where he teamed with the versatile Jim Pollard to win the 1948 championship. After the 1947–48 season, Mikan's Lakers quit the League to join the Basketball Association of America (BAA), along with three other NBL clubs: Rochester, Fort Wayne, and Indianapolis. The NBL added an all-black team in December of its final season, when one of its replacement clubs folded,

8836-529: 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. However,

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