Big_Eight_Conference

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Big Eight Conference

The Big Eight Conference, a former NCAA-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored American football, was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA) by its charter member schools: the University of Kansas, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, and Washington University in St. Louis. Additionally, the University of Iowa was a joint member of the newly formed MVIAA and the older Western Conference (now the Big Ten Conference).

The Big Eight's headquarters were in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City fought to be the home for the headquarters of the new Big 12 Conference, but pressure from the four Texas schools coming over from the Southwest Conference led to the office being located in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.

History

1908 saw the departure of Iowa. However, the addition of Drake University and Iowa State College (now Iowa State University) increased conference membership to six. Kansas State University joined the conference in 1913. Nebraska left in 1919 to play two seasons as an independent. That year, the conference added Grinnell College, with the University of Oklahoma following suit in 1920; its intrastate rival Oklahoma A&M College joined in 1925.

1928 proved to be a pivotal year as the conference split up. The larger state schools of Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma remained together as the MVIAA, which became known informally to fans and the media as the Big Six Conference, while the smaller schools formed a new conference, the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC). The similarity of the two conferences' official names, as well as the competing claims of the two conferences has led to considerable debate over which conference was the original and which was the spin-off (even though the MVIAA eventually went on to become the more prestigious of the two). Both conferences considered 1907 as their founding date, and claimed the same history through 1927.

The conference membership remained unchanged until the addition of the University of Colorado in 1948 from the Mountain States Conference(also known as Skyline Conference, a forerunner of the Western Athletic Conference). The conference's unofficial name became the Big Seven Conference. Oklahoma A&M, which by this time had changed its name to Oklahoma State, rejoined in 1958, and the conference's unofficial name became the Big Eight.

In 1964 the MVIAA officially renamed itself the Big Eight Conference. In 1968 the conference began its long association with the Orange Bowl, sending its champion annually to play in the prestigious bowl game in Miami, Florida.

The conference remained essentially unchanged until 1996, when the eight member schools combined with four former members of the now-defunct Southwest Conference (Baylor University, University of Texas, Texas A&M University, and Texas Tech University) to form the Big 12 Conference. The Big 12 considers itself a new conference and does not claim the Big Eight's history as its own. However, many consider the Big 12 to be an enlarged Big Eight.

Members

Former Members

Conference champions

Baseball

Men's basketball

Following are the MVIAA/Big Eight conference championships from 1907 to 1996.

Kansas: 32 outright/43 total

Kansas State: 14/17

Missouri: 12/15

Nebraska: 2/7

Colorado: 3/5

Iowa State: 2/4

Oklahoma: 8/13

Oklahoma State: 1/2

Regular season champions

This includes titles in the MVIAA and the Big 6 and Big 7 conferences, with records in parentheses.

MVIAA

1908: Kansas (6-0)
1909: Kansas (8-2)
1910: Kansas (7-1)
1911: Kansas (9-3)
1912: Nebraska (8-2)/Kansas (6-0)*
1913: Nebraska (10-0)
1914: Nebraska (7-0)/Kansas (13-1)*
1915: Kansas (13-1)
1916: Nebraska (12-0)
1917: Kansas State (10-2)
1918: Missouri (15-1)
1919: Kansas State (10-2)
1920: Missouri (17-1)
1921: Missouri (17-1)
1922: Missouri/Kansas (15-1)
1923: Kansas (16-0)
1924: Kansas (15-1)
1925: Kansas (15-1)
1926: Kansas (16-2)
1927: Kansas (10-2)
1928: Oklahoma (18-0)

* In 1912 and 1914, KU and NU were divisional winners and declared conference co-champions since no playoffs were staged either year.

Big 6 Conference

1929: Oklahoma (10-0)
1930: Missouri (8-2)
1931: Kansas (7-3)
1932: Kansas (7-3)
1933: Kansas (8-2)
1934: Kansas (9-1)
1935: Iowa State (8-2)
1936: Kansas (10-0)
1937: Kansas/Nebraska (8-2 apiece)
1938: Kansas (9-1)
1939: Missouri/Oklahoma (7-3 apiece)
1940: Kansas/Missouri/Oklahoma (8-2 apiece)
1941: Iowa State/Kansas (7-3 apiece)
1942: Kansas/Oklahoma (8-2 apiece)
1943: Kansas (10-0)
1944: Iowa State/Oklahoma (9-1 apiece)
1945: Iowa State (8-2)
1946: Kansas (10-0)
1947: Oklahoma (8-2)

Big 7 Conference

1948: Kansas State (9-3)
1949: Nebraska/Oklahoma (9-3 apiece)
1950: Kansas State/Nebraska/Kansas (8-4 apiece)
1951: Kansas State (11-1)
1952: Kansas (11-1)
1953: Kansas (10-2)
1954: Kansas/Colorado (10-2)
1955: Colorado (10-2)
1956: Kansas State (9-3)
1957: Kansas (11-1)
1958: Kansas State (10-2)

Big 8 Conference

1959: Kansas State (14-0)
1960: Kansas/Kansas State (10-4 apiece)
1961: Kansas State (13-1)
1962: Colorado (13-1)
1963: Colorado/Kansas State (11-3 apiece)
1964: Kansas State (12-2)
1965: Oklahoma State (12-2)
1966: Kansas (13-1)
1967: Kansas (13-1)
1968: Kansas State (11-3)
1969: Colorado (10-4)
1970: Kansas State (10-4)
1971: Kansas (14-0)
1972: Kansas State (12-2)
1973: Kansas State (12-2)
1974: Kansas (13-1)
1975: Kansas (11-3)
1976: Missouri (12-2)
1977: Kansas State (11-3)
1978: Kansas (13-1)
1979: Oklahoma (10-4)
1980: Missouri (11-3)
1981: Missouri (10-4)
1982: Missouri (12-2)
1983: Missouri (12-2)
1984: Oklahoma (13-1)
1985: Oklahoma (13-1)
1986: Kansas (13-1)
1987: Missouri (11-3)
1988: Oklahoma (12-2)
1989: Oklahoma (12-2)
1990: Missouri (12-2)
1991: Kansas/Oklahoma State (10-4)
1992: Kansas (11-3)
1993: Kansas (11-3)
1994: Missouri (14-0)
1995: Kansas (11-3)
1996: Kansas (12-2)

Tournament champions

1977: Kansas State
1978: Missouri
1979: Oklahoma
1980: Kansas State
1981: Kansas
1982: Missouri
1983: Oklahoma State
1984: Kansas
1985: Oklahoma
1986: Kansas
1987: Missouri
1988: Oklahoma
1989: Missouri
1990: Oklahoma
1991: Missouri
1992: Kansas
1993: Missouri
1994: Nebraska
1995: Oklahoma State
1996: Iowa State

Football

Following are the MVIAA/Big Eight conference championships from 1907 to 1995.

Colorado (3 outright/5 total): 1961; 1976 (Co-Champions); 1989; 1990; 1991 (Co-Champions)

Iowa (0/1): 1907 (Co-Champions)

Iowa State (0/2): 1911 (Co-Champions); 1912 (Co-Champions)

Kansas (2/5): 1908; 1930; 1946 (Co-Champions); 1947 (Co-Champions); 1968 (Co-Champions)

Kansas State (1/1): 1934

Missouri (10/12): 1909; 1913 (Co-Champions); 1919; 1924; 1925; 1927; 1939; 1941; 1942; 1945; 1960; 1969 (Co-Champions)

Nebraska (30/41): 1907 (Co-Champions with the University of Iowa); 1910; 1911 (Co-Champions); 1912 (Co-Champions); 1913 (Co-Champions); 1914; 1915; 1916; 1917; 1921; 1922; 1923; 1928; 1929; 1931; 1932; 1933; 1935; 1936; 1937; 1940; 1963; 1964; 1965; 1966; 1969 (Co-Champions); 1970; 1971; 1972; 1975 (Co-Champions); 1978 (Co-Champions); 1981; 1982; 1983; 1984 (Co-Champions); 1988; 1991 (Co-Champions); 1992; 1993; 1994; 1995

Oklahoma (24/33): 1920; 1938; 1943; 1944; 1946 (Co-Champions); 1947 (Co-Champions); 1948; 1949; 1950; 1951; 1952; 1953; 1954; 1955; 1956; 1957; 1958; 1959; 1962; 1967; 1968 (Co-Champions); 1973; 1974; 1975 (Co-Champions); 1976 (Co-Champions); 1977; 1978 (Co-Champions); 1979; 1980; 1984 (Co-Champions); 1985; 1986; 1987