The Baylor Bears represent the Baylor University in the NCAA Division I. The university was founded in the year 1845 and is located in Waco, Texas. It is the largest Baptist University in the world and the only private school in the Big 12 Conference. The university sponsors a total of sixteen sports teams in the Big 12 Conference. Prior to joining the conference, the team was a member of the Southwest Conference.

The Baylor Bears football team plays its home games at the Floyd Casey Stadium. The stadium was inaugurated in 1950 with a game between the Baylor bears and the football team of the University of Houston. It was originally known as the Baylor Stadium. The name was changed to the Floyd Casey Stadium in 1988, after Floyd Casey, whose son was a long time trustee of the university. The stadium underwent renovation many times, most significantly in 1998 and 2005. Now, it has a seating capacity for 50,000 spectators. Waco Stadium and Carroll Field were the former home arenas for the Baylor Bears football team.

Art Briles is the current head coach of the Baylor Bears football team. He had joined the university football team in November 2007. Earlier, Briles had coached the football team of the University of Houston.

The Baylor University's football team joined the Big 12 Conference in 1996 and since then it has shown its best performance in 2005 and 2006. It opened the 2005 season with a margin of 3-0 but finished at 5-6. In the same year it won the first ever Big 12 road game at the Iowa State University. In 2006, the team won three Big 12 Conference titles over the Kansas State University, the Kansas University and the University of Colorado at Boulder. It finished the season at a 3-5 record.