BIG LIFE.  BIG STAGE.  BIG TEN.

The Big Ten Conference is a union of 11 world-class academic institutions who share a common mission of research, graduate, professional and undergraduate teaching and public service.  The conference's 100-plus years of history, strong tradition of competitive intercollegiate athletic programs, vast and passionate alumni base, and consistent leadership in innovations position the Big Ten and its entire community firmly on the Big Stage.
 
The Big Ten has sustained a comprehensive set of shared practices and policies that enforce the priority of academics and emphasize the values of integrity, fairness and competitiveness in all aspects of its student-athletes' lives, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that each individual has the opportunity to live a Big Life. 

STUDENT-ATHLETE OPPORTUNITIES
• Big Ten universities provide approximately $100 million in direct financial aid to more than 8,500 men and women student-athletes who compete for 25 championships, 12 for men and 13 for women.
• Conference institutions sponsor broad-based athletic programs with more than 270 teams. Other than the Ivy League, the Big Ten has the most broad-based athletic programs in the United States.

TOP ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS
• Big Ten universities are members of the nation's only conference whose constituency is entirely composed of institutions that are members of the AAU, a prestigious association of major academic and research institutions in the United States and Canada.

MORE TELEVISION EXPOSURE
• The Big Ten's media agreements with CBS Sports, ABC/ESPN, the Big Ten Network and CBS College Sports Network provide the conference with its greatest television exposure ever.
• In 2006, the Big Ten created the first national conference-owned television network devoted to the athletic and academic programs of a single conference. The Big Ten Network launched on Aug. 30, 2007, and became the first new network in cable or satellite television history to reach 30 million homes in its first 30 days. The Big Ten Network is now available to more than 75 million homes nationally through agreements with more than 250 cable/satellite/telco affiliates and is in 19 of the nation's top 20 media markets.
• Since the current media agreements began in 2007-08, every home football and men's basketball game has been produced while women's basketball has received more coverage than any other conference.
• The Big Ten's new media agreements have resulted in the broadcast of more than 500 events nationally and regionally on an annual basis, compared to 300 events in the final year of the previous agreements.

NATION'S BEST FANS
• Big Ten fans are some of the nation's most supportive, with more than 8.7 million patrons attending conference home contests during the 2008-09 seasons for football, men's and women's basketball and volleyball alone.
• Over the last 31 seasons, the conference has ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 nationally in football, men's basketball and wrestling attendance. For the past 17 seasons, women's basketball has been ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 nationally in attendance.
• Big Ten institutions have more than 4.2 million living alumni and over 300,000 undergraduate students attending their universities.

SUCCESSFUL PROGRAMS
• During the 2008-09 season, the Big Ten claimed six team national championships, including titles for Iowa wrestling, Northwestern lacrosse, Ohio State synchronized swimming, Penn State fencing and women's volleyball and Wisconsin women's ice hockey. In addition, Big Ten teams finished as the national runners-up in men's basketball and men's gymnastics.
• Big Ten teams have claimed at least three national titles in nine of the last 10 seasons (1999-2000 through 2008-09). Over the last decade, the Big Ten has produced team national crowns in the sports of basketball, cross country, fencing, field hockey, football, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, synchronized swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball and wrestling.

LEADERSHIP IN GENDER EQUITY
• Since 1992, the Big Ten has shown a strong commitment to increasing opportunities for women in sports and exposure of women's athletics by establishing a multi-phased gender equity program. In that time, the Big Ten has created in excess of 2,000 new opportunities for women student-athletes and established 28 new women's teams, while expanding the number of women's championships to 13 by adding field hockey, soccer and rowing.
• As part of the gender equity action plan, the Big Ten was the first conference to voluntarily adopt male/female participation goals for student-athletes in 1992. The Big Ten initiated a five-year plan for conference members to commit to a 60 percent/40 percent male-to-female student-athlete participation ratio. This was achieved as a conference by 1997 and 2000 was the first year that all institutions individually met this goal. During the 2007-08 year, all institutions were in compliance and the conference averaged a 52/48 male-to-female participation ratio.

BUILDING THE FUTURE
• In 1989, the Big Ten created a community outreach program--SCORE (Success Comes Out of Reading Everyday), which partners the conference with two Chicago elementary schools to improve reading performances. What began with one school, two grade levels and five classrooms has grown in its 20th year to include grades kindergarten through eighth, encompassing all classes and students at Melody School and Louis Armstrong School.
• Following the national tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001, the Big Ten, through its intercollegiate athletic department revenues, pledged a $1 million scholarship contribution to assist the families of those affected by the terrorist attacks. The conference's donation is called the "Big Ten 9-11 Scholarship Fund", and the $1 million contribution will be drawn from conference reserves which are generated as a result of football and men's basketball participation in NCAA, bowl and regular-season television opportunities.
• The Big Ten has established numerous community programs surrounding the Big Ten Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments, including the Wayne Duke Postgraduate Award Scholarship, the Big Ten Career Fair, the Hoops Day 5K and a partnership with the Pink Ribbon Connection, a local breast cancer organization.