Michigan was in a conference prior to the B1G in 1892..

I realize that is kind of obscure, but quite an interesting thing I found today from a historical standpoint solely for the fact that it's never been mentioned in ANY Michigan record books.

Michigan supposedly first joined a conference in 1896 according to university records, media guides going back to 1968 and Bentley Library's online exhibit on the program.

That's not the case. 

Apparently, Michigan joined a conference that later led to the creation of the B1G. It was called the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the Northwest (IAANW). 

It was a 4-team conference with members Michigan, Northwestern, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The league dissolved after the 1893 season due to low revenues received by visiting teams being the primary cause per a 1928 Minnesota record book. Strangely, all the sources in the wikipedia article are all from the U of Minnesota.

I did find one record on the conference in from a DeepBlue Bentley Docx search-

A desire to regularize competition with other Midwestern universities led the Athletic Association to join Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Northwestern in forming the Northwestern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1893. The league sponsored competition in baseball and track but folded after one year.

What's interesting is that according to the U-M record, the league was called the NIAA. 

Michigan went 1-2-0 in both seasons in this new-old conference, finishing 3rd in both seasons. These same 4 schools would meet up with Illinois, Chicago and Purdue three years after the league folded to form what is today known as the B1G. 

Minnesota won both conference championships in 1892 and 1893 and it seems like they don't even realize it. They don't list those years at TCF Bank Stadium under their conference championship banner.

This is kind of a big deal because this would give Michigan a 493-204-18 all-time conference record with a .702 win percentage as opposed to what it was thought to be at 491-200-18 (.705).