The Big Ten Conference is a collegiate athletic league that can trace its roots all the way back to 1895, thus making it the oldest Division I conference. The Big Ten is currently an eleven member conference that competes in 25 sports in Division 1 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ten_Conference Current members include Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, and Wisconsin, http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/conference?confId=5 .

The Big Ten has a storied history that dates back to 1895. On January 11, 1895, the presidents of several universities met to discuss the regulation of collegiate athletics. A second meeting was held in 1896 and included Purdue, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Chicago, and Northwestern. The coalition of seven universities was commonly known as the Western Conference at the time. After Indiana and Iowa joined in 1899, the conference was referred to as the Big Nine. In 1908 Michigan left the conference, and in 1912 Ohio State was added. Then, in November of 1917 after Michigan rejoined the conference, the conference was referred to as the Big Ten.