# Equipment staff in the Big Ten

Big Ten athletic departments list 139 equipment staff positions across 18 of the 18 covered schools as of 3 Nov 2026 — 2% of the conference's 6,872 tracked positions, an average of 7.7 per department that has the function. The Ohio State University has the most (12). In the last 90 days Whistle detected 1 hire, 2 departures and 6 title changes in these roles.

_Data as of 3 Nov 2026._
Source: the official athletics staff directories of the 18 covered Big Ten schools, re-read on a rolling schedule; roles classified from published titles; changes from successive reads.
_Canonical URL: https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-ten/roles/equipment_

## Equipment in the Big Ten at a glance

- **Conference:** [Big Ten](https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-ten) — NCAA Division I
- **Schools covered:** 18
- **Schools with equipment staff:** 18 (100%)
- **Equipment positions:** 139 (2% of 6,872 tracked positions)
- **Average per department with the function:** 7.7
- **Changes, last 90 days:** 1 hires · 2 departures · 6 title changes

## How many equipment staff does each Big Ten school have?

One row per covered department. "Positions" counts current (non-departed) staff whose classified role or published title places them in equipment; changes are non-baseline hires, departures and title changes in those positions over the last 90 days, with same-day directory re-reads excluded.

| School | Division | Equipment positions | All tracked positions | Hires (90d) | Departures (90d) | Title changes (90d) |
| --- | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| [The Ohio State University](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/ohiostate) | Division I | 12 | 634 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Pennsylvania State University](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/pennstate) | Division I | 11 | 476 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| [Purdue University](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/purdue) | Division I | 10 | 355 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [University of Michigan](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/michigan) | Division I | 10 | 496 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [University of Washington](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/washington) | Division I | 10 | 389 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [University of Wisconsin–Madison](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/wisconsin) | Division I | 9 | 461 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [University of Oregon](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/oregon) | Division I | 8 | 245 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Michigan State University](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/michiganstate) | Division I | 7 | 302 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Northwestern University](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/northwestern) | Division I | 7 | 302 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| [Rutgers University](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/rutgers) | Division I | 7 | 382 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [University of California, Los Angeles](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/ucla) | Division I | 7 | 373 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [University of Maryland](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/maryland) | Division I | 7 | 358 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [University of Minnesota](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/minnesota) | Division I | 7 | 386 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| [University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/illinois) | Division I | 6 | 383 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [University of Iowa](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/iowa) | Division I | 6 | 302 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [University of Nebraska–Lincoln](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/nebraska) | Division I | 6 | 397 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [University of Southern California](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/usc) | Division I | 5 | 330 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| [Indiana University Bloomington](https://gowhistle.io/directory/school/indiana) | Division I | 4 | 301 | 1 | 0 | 0 |

## Who sells to equipment staff?

Equipment is the buying group for apparel and footwear brands, protective equipment, laundry and inventory systems, team-store and licensing vendors. Typical titles in this group: Director of Equipment Operations; Equipment Manager, Football; Assistant Equipment Manager. Whistle customers filter these positions by conference, school, state and sport, see each person's name, title and contact details where the directory publishes them, and get an alert when one of the positions changes hands.

## Other staff functions in the Big Ten

- [Ticketing in the Big Ten](https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-ten/roles/ticketing) — 152 positions at 18 schools
- [Marketing & fan experience in the Big Ten](https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-ten/roles/marketing) — 148 positions at 18 schools
- [Communications & media relations in the Big Ten](https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-ten/roles/communications) — 181 positions at 17 schools
- [Compliance in the Big Ten](https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-ten/roles/compliance) — 97 positions at 18 schools
- [Development & fundraising in the Big Ten](https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-ten/roles/development) — 271 positions at 18 schools
- [Facilities & event operations in the Big Ten](https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-ten/roles/facilities-event-ops) — 387 positions at 18 schools
- [Video & analytics in the Big Ten](https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-ten/roles/video) — 201 positions at 18 schools
- [Strength & conditioning in the Big Ten](https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-ten/roles/strength-conditioning) — 250 positions at 18 schools
- [Athletic training & sports medicine in the Big Ten](https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-ten/roles/athletic-training) — 549 positions at 18 schools
- [NIL & brand in the Big Ten](https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-ten/roles/nil) — 50 positions at 15 schools

## Equipment in other conferences

- [Equipment in the ACC](https://gowhistle.io/directory/acc/roles/equipment) — 18 schools
- [Equipment in the SEC](https://gowhistle.io/directory/sec/roles/equipment) — 16 schools
- [Equipment in the Big 12](https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-12/roles/equipment) — 15 schools
- [Equipment in the AAC](https://gowhistle.io/directory/aac/roles/equipment) — 13 schools
- [Equipment in the Big Sky](https://gowhistle.io/directory/big-sky/roles/equipment) — 13 schools
- [Equipment in the CAA](https://gowhistle.io/directory/caa/roles/equipment) — 13 schools
- [Equipment in the MAC](https://gowhistle.io/directory/mac/roles/equipment) — 13 schools
- [Equipment in the Sun Belt](https://gowhistle.io/directory/sun-belt/roles/equipment) — 13 schools
- [Equipment in the Atlantic 10](https://gowhistle.io/directory/atlantic-10/roles/equipment) — 11 schools
- [Equipment in the Patriot League](https://gowhistle.io/directory/patriot-league/roles/equipment) — 10 schools
- [Equipment in the Pennsylvania State Athletic](https://gowhistle.io/directory/pennsylvania-state-athletic/roles/equipment) — 10 schools
- [Equipment in the Southland](https://gowhistle.io/directory/southland/roles/equipment) — 10 schools

## Method

Positions are counted from each person's published job title, classified into Whistle's role vocabulary (shared/staff-roles.ts); this group is the "equipment" role.

Change counts compare successive reads of each school's official directory; a school's first extraction and any day on which 25% or more of a roster appears or disappears at once (a re-read, not turnover) are excluded. This page is published when at least 3 covered Big Ten schools have the function and they list at least 10 positions between them; smaller combinations are kept out of search indexes.

## Frequently asked questions

**How many equipment staff work in the Big Ten?**

139 current positions across 18 covered Big Ten athletic departments as of 3 Nov 2026; The Ohio State University lists the most (12).

**Which Big Ten school has the largest equipment staff?**

The Ohio State University, with 12 equipment staff positions out of 634 tracked positions.

**How much turnover is there in Big Ten equipment roles?**

9 changes in the last 90 days: 1 hire, 2 departures, 6 title changes, after excluding first reads and same-day re-reads.

**Where does this staff data come from?**

From the staff directories athletic departments publish on their official websites, read automatically on a rolling schedule (NCAA Division I roughly weekly, Division II and III every three to four weeks). Whistle never publishes names, emails or phone numbers on public pages; staff can remove their details at any time at [gowhistle.io/remove-my-info](https://gowhistle.io/remove-my-info).

Selling to equipment staff in the Big Ten? [Whistle](https://gowhistle.io/pricing) lists every one of these 139 positions with name and title, emails and phones where the directory publishes them, and an alert when one changes. Or [buy the conference as a one-time dataset](https://gowhistle.io/data).

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Whistle (Whistle Athletics) is a collegiate athletics sales-intelligence platform: staff directories, hiring signals and contact data for vendors selling into NCAA athletic departments. Public pages show counts and roles only, never personal contact details. Site summary: https://gowhistle.io/llms.txt