Big 12 Conference

All twelve member schools of the Big 12 Conference participate in the NCAA's Division I FBS football. The conference was officially formed in 1994 but did not begin conference play until the fall of 1996. There is a rich football tradition throughout the conference. The schools that comprise the Big 12 Conference, all former members of either the Big Eight Conference or the Southwest Conference, have won 18 national titles including three since the inception of the Big 12 Conference.

Conference facilities
Locations of Big 12 conference member institutions.== Divisions== There are many national football powerhouses in the Big 12 Conference, and when the league was formed, it was decided that the top team from the South Division would play the top team from the North Division at the end of the season to determine the conference champion.

Teams play eight conference games a season, facing all five opponents within its own division and three teams from the opposite division. Inter-divisional play is a "three-on, three-off" system, where teams will play three teams from the other division on a home-and-home basis for two seasons, and then play the other three foes from the opposite side for a two-year home-and-home.

This format has come under considerable criticism, especially from fans at Nebraska and Oklahoma, who are denied a yearly matchup between two of college football's most storied programs. The Oklahoma–Nebraska rivalry was one of the most intense rivalries in college football history. (Until 2006, the teams had never met in the Big 12 Championship.) There has been talk of modifying the current format to allow each team to have one permanent opponent from the opposite division (as is the case in the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference), or for Nebraska and Oklahoma to play a non-conference game when the two teams are not scheduled to meet in conference play.

Championship game
The Big 12 Championship Game is held by the Big 12 Conference each year. The championship game pits the Big 12 North Division champion against the Big 12 South Division champion in a game held after the regular season has been completed. The first championship game was held during the 1996 season in St. Louis. The 2009 game was played at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Bowl affiliates
Although the Big 12 is currently partnered with nine postseason bowls, only eight slots are guaranteed each season. The Gator Bowl selects a Big 12 team twice every four years, and in the two years that it does not, the Sun Bowl does.[2]

The following is the current bowl selection order and the teams involved in each bowl:

Reorganization
On June 10, 2010, the University of Colorado announced that they would leave the Big-12 Conference and join the Pacific-10 Conference, starting in 2012.[3] On June 11, 2010, the University of Nebraska announced that it would leave the Big-12 and join the Big Ten Conference, starting in 2011.[4] Texas A&M had been considering moving to the Southeastern Conference,[5] and other Big 12 member schools had been considering moving to the Pacific-10 Conference.[6] However, all the Big 12 teams (save for Colorado and Nebraska) that had been considering moving to other conferences ultimately decided to stay with the Big 12