BMW Announces Partnership to Become the Official Luxury Automobile of the Big Ten Conference

Woodcliff Lake, NJ – September 6, 2011… BMW of North America today announced a partnership with the Big Ten Conference, becoming the official luxury automobile of the oldest Division I college conference in the United States.  The agreement will run for the duration of the 2011-2012 sports seasons covering football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and Olympic sports programs. 

As part of the program, BMW will create vehicle displays at select events and establish a “Preferred Parking Promotion” for BMW owners, providing reserved parking access for several Big Ten events including the football championship game and men’s basketball tournament.

“The Big Ten is a great conference and home to some of the country’s top universities,” said David Lee, Sales and Marketing Manager, Central Region, BMW of North America.  “Big Ten schools pride themselves on academic excellence and we look forward to working together to make this partnership a success.”

BMW signage and messaging will also be featured at Big Ten arenas, in scoreboard promotions during live events including the football championship game, both men’s and women’s basketball tournaments and the baseball tournament and in commercial spots during televised events throughout the 2011-2012 college season. 

The Big Ten sponsors 25 official conference sports, 12 for men and 13 for women and 298 teams with more than 9,500 student-athletes competing for Big Ten Championships.  During the 2010-11 season, Big Ten schools claimed six team national championships with titles for Northwestern women’s lacrosse, Ohio State synchronized swimming and men’s volleyball, Penn State women’s volleyball and wrestling and Wisconsin women’s ice hockey.  From an academic standpoint, the Big Ten leads all conferences with the highest number of ranked graduate school programs among the top 25, according to the U.S. News and World Report in 2011.

“Much like the student-athletes of the Big Ten Conference, BMW is a brand dedicated to the highest levels of performance,” said Scott Bailey, General Manager, Big Ten Sports Properties, a property of Learfield Sports.  “We couldn’t think of a better group to work with and are looking forward to building a great relationship together.”

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BMW Group In America

BMW of North America, LLC has been present in the United States since 1975.  Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in 2003.  The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and the Rolls-Royce brand of Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, a strategic design consultancy in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the country.  BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is part of BMW Group’s global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all X5 and X3 Sports Activity Vehicles and X6 Sports Activity Coupes.  The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 339 BMW passenger car and BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 137 BMW motorcycle retailers, 107 MINI passenger car dealers, and 36 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers.  BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group’s sales headquarters for North America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

Information about BMW Group products is available to consumers via the Internet at:  www.bmwgroupna.com.

The Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is an association of world-class universities whose member institutions share a common mission of research, graduate, professional and undergraduate teaching and public service. Founded in 1896, the Big Ten has sustained a comprehensive set of shared practices and policies that enforce the priority of academics in student-athletes’ lives and emphasize the values of integrity, fairness and competitiveness. The broad-based athletic programs of the 12 Big Ten institutions sponsor 298 teams competing for championships in 25 official conference sports, 12 for men and 13 for women. Big Ten universities provide in excess of $120 million in athletic scholarship aid to more than 9,500 men and women student-athletes. For more information, visit www.bigten.org.