The Big 12 Conference is a 10 school collgiate athletic conference headquartered in Texas and was founded on February 25th, 1994. Eight members of the former Big 8 Conference joined with schools from the Southwestern Conference which included Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech to form the new Big 12 Conference which officially started on August, 31st 1996.

The Big 12 Conference remains one of the Power Five Conferences which are considered the primary contenders to produce a college football playoff champion team in any given year.