Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/727077
This is the Big Ten... BIG TEN CONFERENCE 57 WEST DIVISION EAST DIVISION Big Ten Medal of Honor in 1915. It is awarded annually by each conference institution to a student of the graduating class who has attained the greatest proficiency in scholarship and athletics. It is the most prestigious honor a student competing in Big Ten athletics can receive. In 1922, Major John L. Griffith became the conference's first "Commissioner of Athletics." Griffith was the first of five men to assume the role of commissioner in the conference's history, followed by Kenneth L. "Tug" Wilson in 1945, Bill Reed in 1961, Wayne Duke in 1971 and current commissioner James E. Delany in 1989. After nearly 30 years with 10 members, the conference consolidated to nine schools when the University of Chicago formally withdrew its membership in 1946. Michigan State College (now Michigan State University) was added to the Big Ten three years later, bringing the number of affiliated conference schools to 10 once again. In 1955, the Big Ten formulated a revenue- sharing model designed to pool all football television rights of its members and share those proceeds equally. The conference and its members continue to utilize a revenue- sharing model, dividing media rights, bowl payouts and other profits among all conference institutions. While academics have always played an integral role in the conference, presidents of the Big Ten member institutions formalized the primacy of academics with the establishment of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (formerly the Committee on Institutional Cooperation) in 1958. The Big Ten Academic Alliance is an academic consortium of all Big Ten universities. In 2014, the schools currently constituting the Big Ten Academic Alliance produced over $10 billion in funded research, $5 billion more than any other conference. In one of Duke's first actions as commissioner, he oversaw the adoption of the Big Ten Advisory Commission in 1972, designed to study conference programs and make suggestions which would further Big Ten objectives. The Advisory Commission enlists former students that competed in Big Ten athletics to serve as liaisons to the NCAA's Diversity and Inclusion Department, the Big Ten Student-Athlete Advisory Commission and other organizations. In 1981, the conference presidents and chancellors endorsed a proposal that enabled universities to affiliate their women's intercollegiate programs with the conference, and the first conference championships for women were staged that fall. The Big Ten was the first conference to voluntarily adopt male and female participation goals after launching its Gender Equity Action Plan in 1992. In December of 1989, the conference agreed in principle to invite Pennsylvania State University for membership. On June 4, 1990, the Council of Presidents officially voted to integrate Penn State into the conference, giving the Big Ten 11 members. In 2004, the Big Ten implemented a pilot program of instant replay for college football. Following the season, the conference forwarded replay proposals to the NCAA regarding the future use of instant replay, where it approved country-wide testing in 2005. In 2006, the NCAA approved the use of instant replay for all conferences. In 2006, Delany announced the creation of the first conference-owned television network, a 20-year agreement with FOX Networks to create what would become the Big Ten Network (BTN). Launched on Aug. 30, 2007, BTN now produces more than 1,000 events across all platforms each year. BTN is in more than 60 million homes in the U.S. and Canada via the nation's major cable, satellite and telco providers and more than 300 additional cable operators across the country. BTN2Go is the digital extension of BTN, delivering live and on-demand programming to computers, smartphones and tablets and also is accessible outside the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean via BTN2Go International. On June 11, 2010, the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors (COP/C) approved a formal membership application by the University of Nebraska, expanding the conference to 12 institutions. Nebraska officially joined the Big Ten on July 1, 2011. The conference expanded its footprint further in 2012 when the COP/C approved formal membership applications from the University of Maryland and Rutgers University on November 19 and 20, respectively. Maryland and Rutgers became official Big Ten members on July 1, 2014, giving the conference almost 9,500 students participating in intercollegiate athletics and more than 11,000 participation opportunities on 350 teams. Northwestern hosted the 2015 Cross Country Championships at the Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course in Chicago on Nov. 1, 2015.