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The Big Eight Conference is a defunct college athletic conference that was formerly affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I-A (now known as FBS). The Big Eight was a successful football conference, with its member schools being recognized as consensus national champion on eleven occasions, including the last two football seasons the conference existed (1994 and 1995). Seven players from the Big Eight won the Heisman Trophy, the most prestigious national award for college football players.

Membership timeline

History

The conference was formed in 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA) by five charter schools: the University of Kansas, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, University of Iowa, and Washington University in St. Louis. After the MVIAA grew to ten schools, six state schools split away on their own in 1928, becoming known as the "Big Six": Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The University of Colorado was added in 1948, and the conference became known as the "Big Seven Conference". Oklahoma State joined in 1958, becoming the eighth and final member. The conference broke up when its members joined the Big 12 Conference in 1996.

Due to its common history with the Missouri Valley Conference, Big Eight championships from 1907 through 1927 are also claimed by the MVC.

Bowl games

The first Big Eight conference team to attend a bowl game was Missouri, at the 1924 Los Angeles Christmas Festival. Following the 1938 season Oklahoma became the second to attend a bowl game, at the fifth-annual Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. In 1951 and 1952 the conference had a brief ban on its members attending bowl games. When the conference resumed accepting invitations in 1953, its champion regularly thereafter attended the Orange Bowl. This tradition was broken only five times: 1964 (when Nebraska faced #2 Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl); 1966 (when Nebraska faced #3 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl); 1973 and 1974 (when undefeated Oklahoma was on probation and barred from bowl games); and 1995 (when #1 Nebraska played in the Bowl Alliance championship vs. #2 Florida at the Fiesta Bowl).

At the 1979 Orange Bowl, #6 Nebraska and #4 Oklahoma were paired against each other in a rematch of their conference game earlier in the season.

Rankings

In the 1971 NCAA University Division football season, Big Eight teams finished ranked #1 (Nebraska), #2 (Oklahoma) and #3 (Colorado) in the nation in the AP Poll – the only time in college football history teams from one conference have held the top three spots in the final poll. In the final AP Poll issued before the Big Eight became the Big 12, half of the conference's teams were ranked in the nation's top 10 (#1 Nebraska, #5 Colorado, #7 Kansas State, #9 Kansas).

Rivalries

The Nebraska–Oklahoma football rivalry was one of the most significant in the nation, with national title implications involved during many seasons. The 1971 Nebraska vs. Oklahoma football game is commonly referred to as "The Game of the Century."

With common histories dating back even before the 1907 formation of the conference, many of the Big Eight's rivalries were among the most-played in college football. At the time the Big Eight Conference dissolved in 1996, the conference had the two longest uninterrupted series in Division I-A football: Kansas–Oklahoma (played annually since 1903) and Kansas–Nebraska (played annually since 1906). Many of the conference's series began in the 19th century, including:

• Kansas–Missouri, first played in 1891 (second-most played series in Division I-A in 1996)
• Nebraska–Kansas, first played in 1892
• Nebraska–Missouri, first played in 1892
• Missouri–Iowa State, first played in 1896
• Nebraska–Iowa State, first played in 1896
• Kansas–Iowa State, first played in 1898

All of the above series except Kansas-Iowa State have been inactive since at least 2012 due to conference realignment.

Champions

Conference champions

Following are the MVIAA/Big Eight football conference champions from 1907 to 1995 (shared championship years 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

Big Eight football teams were recognized as national champion on eleven occasions, including four times as back-to-back champions:

• 1950 – Oklahoma
• 1955 – Oklahoma
• 1956 – Oklahoma
• 1970 – Nebraska (AP; UPI coaches conducted final poll prior to bowl games and awarded championship to Texas)
• 1971 – Nebraska
• 1974 – Oklahoma (AP; ineligible for UPI coaches poll championship due to NCAA probation. USC named champion of coaches poll)
• 1975 – Oklahoma
• 1985 – Oklahoma
• 1990 – Colorado (AP; UPI coaches poll championship awarded to Georgia Tech)
• 1994 – Nebraska
• 1995 – Nebraska

Accolades

The Big Seven Conference established a Coach of the Year award in 1948. The conference began awarding a Player of the Year award in 1967, and began giving separate offensive and defensive awards in 1971. The final awards were given after the 1995 season, after which all of the Big Eight schools entered the Big 12 Conference.

Player of the Year

Offensive Player of the Year

Defensive Player of the Year

Coach of the Year

All-Time Team

After the final Big Eight season was completed in 1995, a panel of twelve longtime observers selected an all-time conference team:

Heisman Trophy winners

Seven players from the Big Eight won the Heisman Trophy, the most prestigious national award for college football players:

AFCA Coach of the Year

Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year

References

General

• BigEightSports.com list of football champions

Specific

1. "BigEightSports.com". Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
2. "Big Eight Conference football record book" (PDF). Big 12 Conference. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
3. University of Oklahoma. "Oklahoma Sooners head football coaches". University of Oklahoma. Archived from the original on 18 March 2012. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
4. "Majors Selected As Coach of Year". Lawrence Journal-World. The Associated Press. November 30, 1971. p. 10. Retrieved February 10, 2010.
5. University of Missouri (2011). "FB Record Book 2011" (PDF). University of Missouri. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 November 2012. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
6. ^ "Mac Big 12 Coach of the Year". CycloneSportsReport.com. CN Staff. December 1, 2004. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011.
7. "1993 Big Eight Conference Football season standings". Archived from the original on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2013-02-06.
8. "All-Big Eight Team | News OK". Archived from the original on 2014-03-14. Retrieved 2014-03-14.

• Big Eight Conference football