The Big Ten Conference is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1896, it predates the founding of its regulating organization, the NCAA. It is based in the Chicago area in Rosemont, Illinois. For many decades the conference consisted of 10 prominent universities, which accounts for its name. As of 2014, it consists of 14 member institutions and 2 affiliate institutions, with 4 new member institutions scheduled to join in 2024. The conference competes in the NCAA Division I and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, the highest level of NCAA competition in that sport.
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on January 4, 1999. Geographically, the MW covers a broad expanse of the Western United States, with member schools located in California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as an associate member in Hawaii. Gloria Nevarez took over as Commissioner of the MW on January 1, 2023, following the retirement of founding commissioner Craig Thompson.
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level of college football in the nation.
The Holiday Bowl is an American college football bowl game held in San Diego, California since 1978. The bowl is played at Petco Park in downtown San Diego. The baseball park, home of the San Diego Padres, is reconfigured to accommodate a football field. The bowl was held at San Diego Stadium from its inception in 1978 to 2019, when the stadium was scheduled to be demolished.
The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, sometimes referred to as Women's March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 women's college basketball teams from the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), to determine the national championship.
The ACC–Big Ten Challenge was an in-season NCAA Division I men's college basketball series that matched up teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and the Big Ten Conference (B1G). ESPN was a key part of the creation of the challenge and held the broadcast rights to all the games. The ACC–Big Ten Challenge occurred early in the non-conference season, typically around late November/early December. Each game was hosted by one of the participating schools, with teams typically alternating home and away status in each successive year.
The Power Five conferences are the five most prominent athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiate football in the nation, and are considered the most elite conferences within that tier. The Power Five conferences have provided nearly all of the participants in the College Football Playoff since its inception, and generally have larger revenue, budgets, and television viewership than other college athletic programs.
The Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament, otherwise known as the Pac-12 tournament, was the annual concluding tournament for the NCAA college basketball in the Pac-12, taking place in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena. The first tournament was held in 1987 for the Pac-10 conference. It ended after four seasons. The conference did not have a conference tournament until it was started again in 2002.
College GameDay is an ESPN program that covers college basketball and is a spin-off of the successful college football version. Since debuting on January 22, 2005, it airs on ESPN Saturdays in the conference play section of the college basketball season at 11 A.M. ET at a different game site each week. Before 2015, the college basketball version always appeared at the ESPN Saturday Primetime game location. Since the 2014–2015 season, the show has appeared at a top game of the week, similar to the college football version. The program has also appeared at the site of the Final Four.
Kelly Lee Graves is the current head women's basketball coach at the University of Oregon. Previously, Graves was the head women's basketball coach at St. Mary's from 1997 to 2000, as well as Gonzaga University from 2000 to 2014. He was formerly an assistant coach for the Portland Pilots (1994–1997) and St. Mary Gaels, where he later got his first head coaching stint with the Gaels from 1997 to 2000. From the 2004–2005 season to the 2013–2014 season, he guided Gonzaga to ten consecutive West Coast Conference regular season titles. The 2007 team went 13–1 in conference play, and later won the WCC conference tournament. The school also received its first ever NCAA tournament appearance. He was named WCC co-coach of the year for his accomplishments. In 2005, 2010, and 2011, Gonzaga went undefeated in WCC regular season play.
The Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series was a four-year series of NCAA Division I men's college basketball games matching teams from the Big 12 Conference and the Pac-10 Conference. Started in 2007 and concluding in 2010, it was primarily a way to guarantee top flight competition for both conferences and garner more recognition for the level of play of both leagues in basketball. This series mirrored the ACC–Big Ten Challenge. There was a "designated" four-day window for the main part of the series matchups and a few other matchups in November and late December. Because there were more teams in the Big 12 at the time, two teams from the Pac-10 played twice against Big 12 teams. The Pac-10 had a slight advantage on the national stage. UCLA has 11 national championships, University of Arizona in 1997 & University of Oregon in 1939. The series originally had a 4-year contract which was not renewed by the conferences in 2010, bringing an end to the series. The series was brought back in a limited fashion in 2021 as the Pac-12 Coast-to-Coast Challenge.
The 2009–10 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began in November 2009 and ended with the 2010 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament's championship game on April 6, 2010 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The tournament opened with the first and second rounds on Thursday through Sunday, March 18–21, 2010. Regional games were played on Thursday through Sunday, March 28–31, 2010, with the Final Four played on Sunday and Tuesday, April 4 and 6, 2010.
The 2016–17 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began on November 11, 2016 and ended with the Final Four title game in Dallas on April 2, 2017, won by South Carolina. Practices officially began on September 30, 2016.
The 2019 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 64 teams to determine the national champion for the 2018–19 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The 38th annual edition of the tournament began on March 22, and concluded with the championship game on April 7 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, with the University of South Florida serving as host. The tournament field was announced on March 18.
The 2017–18 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began on November 10, 2017 and ended with the Final Four title game at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio on April 1, 2018. Practices officially began in September 29, 2017.
Sabrina Elaine Ionescu is an American professional basketball player for the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played college basketball for the Oregon Ducks. She is the NCAA all-time leader in career triple-doubles, the Pac-12 Conference all-time leader in assists, and the only NCAA Division I basketball player to record 2,000 points, 1,000 assists, and 1,000 rebounds in a career.
The 2018–19 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began in November 2018 and concluded with the Final Four title game at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, in April 2019. Practices officially began in September 2018.
The 2019–20 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began in November 2019 and concluded prematurely on March 12, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was scheduled to end at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 5, 2020, but was ultimately canceled. All other postseason tournaments were canceled as well. It was the first cancellation in the history of the NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament. Practices officially began in late September 2019.
The 2020–21 Iowa State Cyclones men's basketball team represented Iowa State University during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Cyclones were led by Steve Prohm, who coached his sixth and final season at Iowa State. They played their home games at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa as members of the Big 12 Conference.
The 2020–21 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2020 followed by the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November 2020. The conference schedule began in December 2020. This was the ninth season under the Pac-12 Conference name and the 61st since the conference was established under its current charter as the Athletic Association of Western Universities in 1959. Including the history of the Pacific Coast Conference, which operated from 1915 to 1959 and is considered by the Pac-12 as a part of its own history, this is the Pac-12's 105th season of basketball. The Pac-12 announced on December 4, 2019 they would expand conference play to a 20-game schedule, with the two addition games per school, one at home and the other on the road, being added during the months of November and December.
