The Big Ten Conference (known as B1G) is the oldest Division 1 collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The  conference is composed of fourteen members and two affiliated institutions. The conference includes public universities of eleven states, and two public land grant schools and a private university. 

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Institutions which integrate the conference are major research universities with large financial endowments and strong academic reputations. All of them are members of the Association of American Universities (with the University of Nebraska, and associate member University of Notre Dame). The students enrollment is a distinctive feature of the B1G Universities with 30.000 or more students (exceptions Nebraska and Northwestern). The universities educate more than 520.000 total students and have more than 5.7 millions alumni. They are part of 9.3 billion in funded research each year, and members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance. 

​

The Big Ten Conference is the combination of a highstand academic level, and the performance at the highest level in the intercollegiate athletics. Allowing the young female and male student-athletes to develop their careers in both areas.

“One of the things that helps the most from Purdue's perspective is the Big Ten network. Our conference is committed to showing female sports on television, that reaches thousands of people. It is how you get people to be interested in women’s sports. You must have people watching. There are little girls watching it that want to learn about the sport and play. The B1G has been really good in the last 15-20 years,” explains Patrick Crawford.