Big Ten Conference

Big Ten Championship Game
With the addition of Nebraska to the Big Ten Conference beginning in the 2011 season, the Big Ten Conference announced on August 05, 2010, that the inaugural Big Ten Football Championship Game will be held at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. [24]

Bowl games
Since 1946, the Big Ten champion has had a tie-in with the Rose Bowl game, now a BCS bowl. The Big Ten also has tie-ins with seven non-BCS bowls. Michigan appeared in the first bowl game, the 1902 Rose Bowl. After that, the Big Ten did not allow their schools to participate in bowl games, until the agreement struck with the Pacific Coast Conference for the 1947 Rose Bowl. From 1946 through 1971, the Big Ten did not allow the same team to represent the conference in consecutive years in the Rose Bowl with an exception made after the 1961 season in which Minnesota played in the 1962 Rose Bowl after playing in the 1961 Rose Bowl due to Ohio State declining the bid because of Ohio State faculty concerns about academics. It was not until the 1975 season that the Big Ten allowed teams to play in bowl games other than the Rose Bowl. Due to those rules, Big Ten powers such as Michigan and Ohio State have lower numbers of all-time bowl appearances than powerhouse teams from the Big 12 Conference (formerly the Big 8 Conference, with some former members of the Southwest Conference) and Southeastern Conference, which always placed multiple teams in bowl games every year.

Bowl selection procedures
Although the pick order usually corresponds to the conference standings, the bowls are not required to make their choices strictly according to the won-lost records; many factors influence bowl selections, especially the turnout of the fans for past bowl games. Picks are made after BCS selections; the bowl with the #2 pick will have the first pick of the remaining teams in the conference.

The Capital One, Outback, and Gator Bowls can select any eligible team except a team that has two fewer wins or two more losses than another eligible team. The Insight, Dallas Classic, Texas and Motor City Bowls have no such restrictions, However, the bowls cannot select a 6-6 team if a 7-5 or better team is not selected by a Big Ten-affiliated bowl.[25] [26]

Marching bands
Big Ten football games are also well known for the participation and excellence of the Big Ten Conference universities' marching bands. All Big Ten Conference marching bands march variations of the signature Big Ten high step, sometimes referred to as the "chair step." Nine of the eleven participating Big Ten Conference universities, as well as future member Nebraska, have won the Sudler Trophy, the most prestigious award a collegiate marching band can receive. The first three trophies were all awarded to Big Ten conference members, and the Big Ten boasts more Sudler Trophy award winners than any other conference.

During the pre-game show performance, the Big Ten marching bands have the tradition of playing the opposing team's fight song. Purdue University's "All-American" Marching Band was the first school in history to play their opponent's fight song.[27] [28] [29]

Divisions
On September 1, 2010 the Big Ten announced the football divisions that will be used when Nebraska moves from the Big 12 Conference. The names are provisionally "X" and "O" and they are grouped based on program strength and competitive balance. As reported by Commissioner James Delany, each team will play each team in its division every year, one "cross-over" game every year, and two rotating cross-divisional games. This is the same type of schedule the SEC and ACC play, differentiating from the Big 12 and what the expanded Pac-10 is planning. The following table shows the permanent inter-divisional opponent for each school (records through the completion of the 2009 season with Division O wins listed first