It became official on July 1. The Big Eight Conference as we know it no longer exists.

In its place is the Big 12 Conference, a merger of the eight Big Eight schools with the University of Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech.

Tim Allen, assistant commissioner of the Big 12, stresses that the new conference is not a merger, but rather a new conference.

“What we did was add the four former Southwest Conference [teams] to the Big Eight,” said Allen, the former associate commissioner of the Big Eight. “This has created a totally new conference.”

Iowa State University’s sports information director Tom Kroeschell said he can not think of any negatives about the new conference.

“I am pretty confident that the new conference will benefit every one of our sports programs at Iowa State,” Kroeschell said. “It will not only help us from a competitive standpoint, but financially as well, with the new football contract.”

ISU was an original member of the Missouri Valley Conference, the predecessor of the Big Eight. The Big Eight started athletic competition in the fall of 1928 as the Big Six Conference.

The members of the Big Six were ISU, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The Big Six became the Big Seven in 1947 with the addition of Colorado, and expanded into the Big Eight in 1958 when Oklahoma State joined the conference.

The headquarters of the new conference are located in Dallas, Texas. The Big Eight had been headquartered in Kansas City, Mo. Allen had worked at the Big Eight headquarters for 13 years, with his last job being that of associate commissioner of the conference.

“The workload and responsibilities have not changed for me,” Allen said. “It’s just in different surroundings.”

Allen said getting the new conference off the ground has not come without its share of minor difficulties.

“Sure it has been challenging at times getting the new conference started,” he said.

“But I’m a person who looks forward to challenges.”