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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 Conference 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):[1][2]
| Football conference championships (1907–1995) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| School | Total titles | Outright titles | Years |
| Colorado | 5 | 3 | 1961 · 1976 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991 |
| Drake | 0 | 0 | |
| Grinnell | 0 | 0 | |
| Iowa | 1 | 0 | 1907 |
| Iowa State | 2 | 0 | 1911 · 1912 |
| Kansas | 5 | 2 | 1908 · 1930 · 1946 · 1947 · 1968 |
| Kansas State | 1 | 1 | 1934 |
| Missouri | 12 | 10 | 1909 · 1913 · 1919 · 1924 · 1925 · 1927 · 1939 · 1941 · 1942 · 1945 · 1960† · 1969 |
| Nebraska | 41 | 31 | 1907 · 1910 · 1911 · 1912 · 1913 · 1914 · 1915 · 1916 · 1917 · 1921 · 1922 · 1923 · 1928 · 1929 · 1931 · 1932 · 1933 · 1935 · 1936 · 1937 · 1940 · 1963 · 1964 · 1965 · 1966 · 1969 · 1970 · 1971 · 1972‡ · 1975 · 1978 · 1981 · 1982 · 1983 · 1984 · 1988 · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 |
| Oklahoma | 34 | 26 | 1920 · 1933 · 1938 · 1943 · 1944 · 1946 · 1947 · 1948 · 1949 · 1950 · 1951 · 1952 · 1953 · 1954 · 1955 · 1956 · 1957 · 1958 · 1959 · 1962 1967 · 1968 · 1972‡ · 1974 · 1975 · 1976 · 1977 · 1978 · 1979 · 1980 · 1984 · 1985 · 1986 · 1987 |
| Oklahoma State | 2 | 1 | 1926 · 1976 |
| Washington (St. Louis) | 0 | 0 | |
† 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
| Season | Player | Pos. | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Granville Liggins | NT | Oklahoma |
| 1968 | Steve Owens | RB | Oklahoma |
| 1969 | Steve Owens (2) | RB | Oklahoma |
| 1970 | Jerry Murtaugh | LB | Nebraska |
| 1971 | Greg Pruitt | RB | Oklahoma |
Offensive Player of the Year
| Season | Player | Pos. | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | George Amundson | QB | Iowa State |
| 1973 | Joe Washington | RB | Oklahoma |
| 1975 | Joe Washington (2) | RB | Oklahoma |
| 1975 | Nolan Cromwell | QB | Kansas |
| 1976 | Terry Miller | RB | Oklahoma State |
| 1977 | Terry Miller (2) | RB | Oklahoma State |
| 1978 | Billy Sims | RB | Oklahoma |
| 1979 | Billy Sims (2) | RB | Oklahoma |
| 1980 | Phil Bradley | QB | Missouri |
| 1981 | Dave Rimington | C | Nebraska |
| 1982 | Mike Rozier | RB | Nebraska |
| 1983 | Mike Rozier (2) | RB | Nebraska |
| 1984 | Danny Bradley | QB | Oklahoma |
| 1985 | Thurman Thomas | RB | Oklahoma State |
| 1986 | Jamelle Holieway | QB | Oklahoma |
| 1987 | Thurman Thomas (2) | RB | Oklahoma State |
| 1988 | Barry Sanders | RB | Oklahoma State |
| 1989 | Darian Hagan | QB | Colorado |
| Gerry Gdowski | QB | Nebraska | |
| 1990 | Eric Bieniemy | RB | Colorado |
| 1991 | Tony Sands | RB | Kansas |
| 1992 | Calvin Jones | RB | Nebraska |
| 1993 | Charles Johnson | WR | Colorado |
| 1994 | Rashaan Salaam | RB | Colorado |
| 1995 | Tommie Frazier | QB | Nebraska |
Defensive Player of the Year
| Season | Player | Pos. | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Rich Glover | DT | Nebraska |
| 1973 | Lucious Selmon | NT | Oklahoma |
| 1974 | Rod Shoate | LB | Oklahoma |
| 1975 | Lee Roy Selmon | DT | Oklahoma |
| 1976 | Clete Pillen | DE | Nebraska |
| 1977 | George Cumby | LB | Oklahoma |
| 1978 | John Corker | LB | Oklahoma State |
| 1979 | George Cumby (2) | LB | Oklahoma |
| 1980 | Derrie Nelson | DE | Nebraska |
| 1981 | Jeff Gaylord | LB | Missouri |
| 1982 | Rick Bryan | DE | Oklahoma |
| 1983 | Rick Bryan (2) | DE | Oklahoma |
| 1984 | Leslie O'Neal | DT | Oklahoma State |
| 1985 | Brian Bosworth | LB | Oklahoma |
| 1986 | Brian Bosworth (2) | LB | Oklahoma |
| 1987 | Dante Jones | LB | Oklahoma |
| 1988 | Broderick Thomas | LB | Nebraska |
| 1989 | Alfred Williams | LB | Colorado |
| 1990 | Alfred Williams (2) | LB | Colorado |
| 1991 | Joe Bowden | LB | Oklahoma |
| 1992 | Deon Figures | CB | Colorado |
| 1993 | Trev Alberts | LB | Nebraska |
| 1994 | Ed Stewart | LB | Nebraska |
| 1995 | Tim Colston | DT | Kansas State |