Big Ten Conference
Sport Men 's Women 's
Baseball 13 -
Basketball 14 14
Cross country 12 14
Field hockey - 9
Football 14 -
Golf 14 14
Gymnastics 7 10
Ice hockey 7 -
Lacrosse 6 7
Rowing - 8
Soccer 9 14
Softball - 14
Swimming & diving 10 13
Tennis 12 14
Track and field ( indoor ) 12 13
Track and field ( outdoor ) 13 13
Volleyball - 14
Wrestling 14 -
Sports
The Big Ten Conference sponsors championship competition in 14 men 's and 14 women 's NCAA sanctioned sports . [ 9 ]
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. It is based in Rosemont, Illinois. For decades the conference consisted of 10 universities, while the present conference has 14 member institutions. They compete in the NCAA Division I; 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. The conference includes the flagship public university in each of 11 states stretching from New Jersey to Nebraska, as well as two additional public land-grant schools and a private university. The Big Ten Conference was established in 1895 when Purdue University president James H. Smart and representatives from the University of Chicago, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, and University of Wisconsin gathered at Chicago's Palmer House Hotel to set policies aimed at regulating intercollegiate athletics. In 1899, Indiana University and the University of Iowa joined the conference to increase the membership to nine schools. In 1905, the conference was officially incorporated as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives. 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. Big Ten member institutions are major research universities with large financial endowments and strong academic reputations. All institutions except full member University of Nebraska and associate member Notre Dame are members of the Association of American Universities. Large student enrollment is a hallmark of Big Ten Universities, as 12 of the 14 members feature enrollments of 30,000 or more students.