[10] In April 1907, Michigan was voted out of the conference for refusing to adhere to league rules limiting football teams to no more than five games and players to three years of eligibility.

Following the addition of Penn State, efforts were made to encourage the University of Notre Dame, at that time the last remaining non-service academy independent, to join the league.

Although Notre Dame's faculty senate endorsed the idea with a near-unanimous vote, the school's board of trustees decided against joining the conference.

As part of the agreement to join the Big Ten, Nebraska would not receive a full share of the media revenue for the first six years of its membership, until fall 2017.

On November 19, 2012, the University of Maryland's Board of Regents voted to withdraw from the ACC and join the Big Ten as its 13th member effective on July 1, 2014.

[26] On April 28, 2013, the Big Ten presidents and chancellors unanimously approved a football divisional realignment that went into effect when Maryland and Rutgers joined in 2014.

Coincident with the addition of Maryland and Rutgers, Michigan agreed to upgrade its successful club team to varsity status, giving the Big Ten five sponsoring schools, one short of the minimum six for an automatic bid.

On March 23, 2016, the Big Ten Conference and Notre Dame announced the Fighting Irish would become a men's ice hockey affiliate beginning with the 2017–18 season.

[42][43] Unlike the prior expansion with Nebraska, Rutgers, and Maryland, USC and UCLA would join with a full share of the media revenue from the start of their Big Ten tenure.

[50] In June 2023 – after UCLA and USC were confirmed as incoming members but before Oregon and Washington were added – the conference announced that starting in 2024, the East and West divisions for football would be eliminated.

Total expenses includes coach and staff salaries, scholarships, buildings and grounds, maintenance, utilities and rental fees, recruiting, team travel, equipment and uniforms, conference dues, and insurance.

The following table shows institutional reporting to the United States Department of Education as shown on the DOE Equity in Athletics website for the 2022–23 academic year.

[63] The following table shows revenue specifically from NCAA / Conference Distributions, Media Rights, and Post-Season Football reported by the Knight Commission for the 2021–22 academic year.

[64] Commissioner Jim Delany began to explore the formation of a Big Ten-specific channel in 2004 after a failed attempt to seek a significantly larger rights fee from ESPN to renew its existing agreements.

[66] The impact of Big Ten Network influenced the conference's expansion in the 2010s, with some of its newer members being located in proximity to major media markets such as Baltimore and Washington, D.C. (Maryland) and the New York metropolitan area (Rutgers).

On August 18, 2022, the Big Ten announced that it had reached seven-year broadcast rights deals with Fox, CBS, and for the first time, NBC Sports, beginning in the 2023–24 academic year, ending an association between the conference and ESPN dating back to the 1980s.

A major goal for the new contracts was to establish specific broadcast windows for Big Ten football games across its three partners, with Fox, CBS, and NBC primarily holding rights to Noon ET, 3:30 p.m.

More rivalries were disrupted, and some resumed on a yearly basis, when the league realigned into East and West Divisions for the 2014 season with the addition of Maryland and Rutgers.

Penn State also has long histories with independent Notre Dame; Temple of The American; Syracuse, and Boston College of the ACC; and West Virginia, of the Big 12 Conference.

Illinois has a longstanding basketball rivalry with the SEC's Missouri Tigers, with the two men's teams squaring off annually in the "Braggin' Rights" game.

USC plays in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a publicly owned stadium that is managed and operated by the university, which has hosted two summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984, and will again in 2028.

The spread of civilian air travel plus the fact that the US military had publicly encouraged college football during World War II were primary causes of the Big Ten finally allowing the Rose Bowl.

When not hosting a semifinal, the Orange Bowl will select the highest-ranked team from the Big Ten, SEC or Notre Dame to face an ACC opponent.

[120] In 2024, three Big Ten member schools—Northwestern and USC, private institutions, and Penn State, exempt from most open records laws due to its status as what Pennsylvania calls a "state-related" institution—are not obligated to provide salary information for their head coaches.

Eleven of the member schools have won the Sudler Trophy,[121] generally considered the most prestigious honor a collegiate marching band can receive.

In addition, in 1943 the defunct Helms Athletic Foundation retrospectively awarded national titles to Northwestern for 1931 and Purdue for 1932; then in 1957, it selected Illinois for 1915, Minnesota for 1902 and 1919, and Wisconsin for 1912, 1914 and 1916.

[120] In 2024, three Big Ten member schools—Northwestern and USC, private institutions, and Penn State, exempt from most open records laws due to its status as what Pennsylvania calls a "state-related" institution—are not obligated to provide salary information for their head coaches.

[136] With the addition of Johns Hopkins and Maryland to the league, Big Ten men's lacrosse boasts two of the top programs and most heated rivals in the history of the sport.

Johns Hopkins became the seventh women's lacrosse program in the Big Ten as of July 1, 2016, with the roster increasing to nine with the 2024 arrival of Oregon and USC.

For Big Ten records, by sport (not including football), see footnote[142] Totals are per NCAA annual list published every July[143] and NCAA-published gymnastics history,[144] with subsequent results as of March 31, 2024, obtained from NCAA.org, which provides intermittent updates throughout the year.