Big Eight Conference

History

Formation

The conference was founded as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA) at a meeting on January 12, 1907, of five charter member institutions: the University of Kansas, the University of Missouri, the University of Nebraska, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Iowa, which also maintained its concurrent membership in the Western Conference (now the Big Ten Conference). However, Iowa only participated in football and outdoor men's track and field for a brief period before leaving the conference in 1911.

Early membership changes

In 1908, Drake University and Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) joined the MVIAA, increasing the conference's membership to seven. Iowa, which was a joint member, departed the conference in 1911 to return to sole competition in the Western Conference, but Kansas State University joined the conference in 1913. Nebraska left in 1918 to play as an independent for two seasons before returning in 1920. In 1919, the University of Oklahoma and Saint Louis University applied for membership but were not approved due to deficient management of their athletic programs. The conference then added Grinnell College in 1919, with the University of Oklahoma applying again and being approved in 1920. Oklahoma A&M University (now Oklahoma State University) joined in 1925, bringing conference membership to ten, an all-time high.

Split into Big Six Conference

At a meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska, on May 19, 1928, the conference split up. Six of the seven state schools (all except Oklahoma A&M) formed a conference that was initially known as the Big Six Conference. Just before the start of fall practice, the six schools announced they would retain the MVIAA name for formal purposes. However, fans and media continued to call it the Big Six. The three private schools – Drake, Grinnell, and Washington University – joined with Oklahoma A&M to form the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC). The old MVIAA's administrative staff transferred to the MVC.

The similarity of the two conferences' official names, as well as the competing claims of the two conferences, led to considerable debate over which conference was the original and which was the spin-off, though the MVIAA went on to become the more prestigious of the two. For the remainder of the Big Eight's run, both conferences claimed 1907 as their founding date, as well as the same history through 1927. To this day, it has never been definitively established which conference was the original.

Big Seven adds Colorado

Conference membership grew with the addition of the University of Colorado on December 1, 1947, from the Mountain States Conference. Later that month, Reaves E. Peters was hired as "Commissioner of Officials and Assistant Secretary" and set up the first conference offices in Kansas City, Missouri. With the addition of Colorado, the conference's unofficial name became the Big Seven Conference, coincidentally, the former unofficial name of the MSC.

Big Eight adds Oklahoma State

The final membership change happened ten years later, when Oklahoma A&M, newly renamed Oklahoma State, joined (or rejoined, depending on the source) the conference on June 1, 1957, and the conference became known as the Big Eight. However, Oklahoma State did not begin conference play until the 1958–59 season for basketball and the 1960 season for football. Peters' title was changed to "Executive Secretary" of the conference in 1957. He retired in June 1963 and was replaced by Wayne Duke, whose title was later changed to "Commissioner".

In 1964, the conference legally assumed the name Big Eight Conference. In 1968 the conference began a long association with the Orange Bowl, sending its champion annually to play in the prestigious bowl game in Miami, Florida, all except the 1974 Orange Bowl and the 1975 Orange Bowl. Instead, Big Eight representative Nebraska Cornhuskers played in the 1974 Cotton Bowl Classic and the 1974 Sugar Bowl (Oklahoma, which won the conference championship in 1973 and 1974, was banned from bowl games in those seasons as part of NCAA probation).

Formation of the Big 12 Conference

Main article: Big 12 Conference

In the early 1990s, most of the colleges in Division I-A (now known as the Football Bowl Subdivision) were members of the College Football Association; this included members of the Big Eight and Southwest Conferences. Following a Supreme Court decision in 1984, the primary function of the CFA was to negotiate television broadcast rights for its member conferences and independent colleges. In February 1994, the Southeastern Conference announced that they, like the Big Ten, Pac-10, and Notre Dame before them, would be leaving the CFA and negotiating independently for a television deal that covered SEC schools only. This led The Dallas Morning News to proclaim that "the College Football Association as a television entity is dead". More significantly, this change in television contracts ultimately would lead to significant realignment of college conferences, with the biggest change being the dissolution of the Big Eight and Southwest Conferences and the formation of the Big 12.

After the SEC's abandonment of the CFA, the Southwest Conference and the Big Eight Conference saw potential financial benefits from an alliance to negotiate television deals, and quickly began negotiations to that end, with ABC and ESPN. On February 25, 1994, it was announced that a new conference would be formed from the members of the Big Eight and four of the Texas member colleges of the Southwest Conference. Though the name would not be made official for several months, newspaper accounts immediately dubbed the new entity the "Big 12". Charter members of the Big 12 included the members of the Big Eight plus Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech.

Dissolution

Following the formation of the Big 12 Conference in 1994, the Big Eight continued operations until August 30, 1996, when the conference was formally dissolved and its members officially began competition in the Big 12 Conference. Although the Big 12 was essentially the Big Eight plus the four Texas schools, the Big 12 regards itself as a separate conference and does not claim the Big Eight's history as its own.

Members

Final members

(*In the early 1980s, Colorado's colors were sky blue and gold.)

Previous members

Membership timeline

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Subsequent conference affiliations

1. Colorado left the Big 12 for the Pac-12 beginning with the 2011–12 season. It rejoined the Big 12 in 2024.
2. Drake withdrew from the Missouri Valley Conference from 1951 to 1956. The MVC stopped sponsoring football in 1985; Drake remains a member for all non-football sports. The football program dropped to Division III in 1987, playing as an independent until a change in NCAA rules forced the program to play in Division I. When the new rule took effect in 1993, Drake joined the newly formed Pioneer League, a football-only league playing at the FCS level that prohibits the awarding of football scholarships.
3. Grinnell joined the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference beginning with the 1939–40 season; their affiliation from 1928 to 1939 is unclear. The MCAC merged with the Midwest Athletic Conference for Women to form the Midwest Conference beginning with the 1994–95 season.
4. Missouri left the Big 12 for the SEC beginning with the 2012–13 season.
5. Nebraska left the Big 12 for the Big Ten beginning with the 2011–12 season.
6. Oklahoma left the Big 12 for the SEC beginning with the 2024–25 season.
7. Washington University left the MVC in 1946; it joined the College Athletic Conference from 1962 through 1971, and became a charter member of the University Athletic Association, which began play with the 1986–87 season. It was independent in all other years. Washington University is now a football-only affiliate member of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.

Commissioners

• Reaves Peters (1947–1963) as Executive Secretary
• Wayne Duke (1963–1971)
• Chuck Neinas (1971–1980)
• Carl C. James (1980–1996)

Conference champions

Main article: List of Big Eight Conference champions

Men's basketball

Main article: Big Eight Conference men's basketball tournament

Following are the MVIAA/Big Eight regular-season conference champions from 1908 to 1996 (showing shared championships in italics):

Women's basketball

From 1981 to 1996, women played basketball in the Big Eight Conference.

Football

Main article: Big Eight Conference football

Shared championships are shown in italics:

• † Kansas would have won the 1960 title, but after found to be using an ineligible player they were forced to forfeit their victories over Missouri and Colorado, which meant that Missouri was awarded the 1960 Big Eight title.*
• ‡ Oklahoma initially won the 1972 title, but after it was found that they used ineligible players, they were penalized by the NCAA, though they did not force OU to forfeit games. The Big Eight asked them to forfeit three games and awarded the title to Nebraska, but Oklahoma still claims these wins and this title.*

National championships won by MVIAA/Big Eight members

The following is a complete list of the 100 AIAW, NCAA and college football championships won by teams that were representing the Big Eight Conference in NCAA- or AIAW-recognized sports at the time of the championship. Football (11):

1950 – Oklahoma

1955 – Oklahoma

1956 – Oklahoma

1970 – Nebraska

1971 – Nebraska

1974 – Oklahoma

1975 – Oklahoma

1985 – Oklahoma

1990 – Colorado

1994 – Nebraska

1995 – Nebraska

Baseball (4):

1951 – Oklahoma

1954 – Missouri

1959 – Oklahoma State

1994 – Oklahoma

Men's basketball (2):

1952 – Kansas

1988 – Kansas

Men's Cross Country (3):

1953 – Kansas

1989 – Iowa State

1994 – Iowa State

Women's Cross Country (5):

1975 – Iowa State

1976 – Iowa State

1977 – Iowa State

1978 – Iowa State

1981 – Iowa State

Men's golf (9):

1963 – Oklahoma State

1976 – Oklahoma State

1978 – Oklahoma State

1980 – Oklahoma State

1983 – Oklahoma State

1987 – Oklahoma State

1989 – Oklahoma

1991 – Oklahoma State

1995 – Oklahoma State

Men's gymnastics (14):

1971 – Iowa State

1973 – Iowa State

1974 – Iowa State

1977 – Oklahoma

1978 – Oklahoma

1979 – Nebraska

1980 – Nebraska

1981 – Nebraska

1982 – Nebraska

1983 – Nebraska

1988 – Nebraska

1990 – Nebraska

1991 – Oklahoma

1994 – Nebraska

Men's/Women's Skiing (14):

1959 – Colorado

1960 – Colorado

1972 – Colorado

1973 – Colorado

1974 – Colorado

1975 – Colorado

1976 – Colorado

1977 – Colorado

1978 – Colorado

1979 – Colorado

1982 – Colorado (men's)

1982 – Colorado (women's)

1991 – Colorado

1995 – Colorado

Men's Indoor Track (4):

1965 – Missouri

1966 – Kansas

1969 – Kansas

1970 – Kansas

Women's Indoor Track (3):

1982 – Nebraska

1983 – Nebraska

1984 – Nebraska

Men's Outdoor Track (3):

1959 – Kansas

1960 – Kansas

1970 – Kansas

Women's volleyball (1):

1995 – Nebraska

Wrestling (27):

1928 – Oklahoma State

1933 – Iowa State

1936 – Oklahoma

1951 – Oklahoma

1952 – Oklahoma

1957 – Oklahoma

1958 – Oklahoma State

1959 – Oklahoma State

1960 – Oklahoma

1961 – Oklahoma State

1962 – Oklahoma State

1963 – Oklahoma

1964 – Oklahoma State

1965 – Iowa State

1966 – Oklahoma State

1968 – Oklahoma State

1969 – Iowa State

1970 – Iowa State

1971 – Oklahoma State

1972 – Iowa State

1973 – Iowa State

1974 – Oklahoma

1977 – Iowa State

1987 – Iowa State

1989 – Oklahoma State

1990 – Oklahoma State

1994 – Oklahoma State

National team titles by institution

The national championships listed below are for the final eight members of the conference, as of July 2014. Football, Helms, and equestrian titles are included in the total, but excluded from the column listing NCAA and AIAW titles.

Racial integration

The history of the Big Eight Conference straddles the era of racial segregation in the United States, particularly as it relates to African Americans.

Before the formation of the conference, three African-American brothers at the University of Kansas were the first known to have participated in organized sports for a league school: Sherman Haney played baseball for KU beginning in 1888, followed by Grant Haney and then Ed Haney, the last of whom also played football at KU in 1893. At the same time, the University of Nebraska football team had on its roster George Flippin, the son of a slave, beginning in 1891.

Race relations in the United States, however, deteriorated in the early 20th century, and African-American athletes disappeared almost entirely from the conference in the four decades after Ross's final season at NU in 1913. The lone exception during the following decades was Iowa State. In 1923 Jack Trice became the first African-American athlete at Iowa State – and the only one in the conference. Tragically, Trice died two days after playing his second football game with Iowa State, due to injuries suffered during the game (against Minnesota). Jack Trice Stadium at Iowa State is now named in his honor. Trice was followed at Iowa State by Holloway Smith, who played football for ISU in 1926 and 1927. After Smith, the league's teams were all-white for more than two decades. (During this time all of the major professional sports leagues in the U.S. were also segregated.)

Modern era

The modern era of full integration of league sports began at Kansas State, with Harold Robinson. In 1949, Harold Robinson played football for Kansas State with an athletic scholarship. In doing so, Robinson broke the modern "color barrier" in conference athletics and also became the first-ever African-American athlete on scholarship in the conference. Harold Robinson later received a letter of congratulations from Jackie Robinson, who had reintegrated major league baseball in 1947 while playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In the spring of 1951, the conference's baseball color barrier was broken by Kansas State's Earl Woods, and in the winter of 1951–1952, Kansas State's Gene Wilson and Kansas's LaVannes Squires jointly broke the conference color barrier in basketball.

Nebraska was the third league school to (re)integrate its athletic teams, with Charles Bryant joining the football team in 1952. Iowa State would be next, with Harold Potts and Henry Philmon reintegrating the Cyclone football team in 1953. The following season, Franklin Clarke became the first varsity African-American football player at the University of Colorado. In 1955, Homer Floyd became the first African-American to play football for Kansas since Ed Haney in 1893. Sports teams at the remaining three conference schools (Oklahoma, Missouri and Oklahoma State) were subsequently all integrated by the end of the 1950s. Notably, Prentice Gautt (later a Big Eight administrator) became the first black player for Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma in 1956, and Norris Stevenson integrated Mizzou athletics in 1957.

Every college football team of the Big Eight was fully integrated by the end of the 1950s, and this gave the conference an advantage throughout the 1960s, as many opposing conferences had not yet integrated their sports teams. The Southeastern Conference (SEC), the last major college sports conference to oppose integration, had particular trouble against the Big Eight during its final years fielding all-white teams. The first SEC school to integrate, Kentucky, did so in 1967, and the last schools to do so, LSU and Mississippi, did so in 1972. During the SEC's eight-year national championship drought between 1965 and 1973, the Big Eight teams repeatedly defeated the SEC teams in inter-conference games, largely due to their integrated teams.

The 1971 football season ended with three Big Eight schools—Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Colorado—ranked first, second, and third in the final AP poll, the only season in college football history that three teams from the same conference finished in the top three rankings. During the 1971 season, those three Big Eight teams beat three SEC schools—Alabama, Auburn, and LSU—in decisive victories (Colorado defeated LSU, 31–21 in September; Nebraska defeated Alabama, 38–6 in the Orange Bowl; Oklahoma defeated Auburn, 40–22 in the Sugar Bowl). In each of the Big Eight victories throughout this period, and especially in the 1971 season, the performance of the Big Eight schools’ black players was considered a deciding factor in their teams' victories. These players' performance contributed to the SEC school's recruitment of black players—the next national championship won by the SEC was by the 1973 Alabama team, which was fully integrated.

Conference facilities

This is a listing of the conference facilities as of the final athletic season of the conference, 1995–1996.

The Colorado Buffaloes baseball program, which played home games at Prentup Field, was discontinued in June 1980.

References

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