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Academic events with large gatherings in the State Farm Center and Memorial Stadium—convocation and freshman graduation—open with this statement: “As a land-grant institution, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a responsibility to recognize the historical context in which it exists . To remind ourselves and our community, we will begin this event with the following statement. We are currently on the lands of the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Piankashaw, Wea, Miami, Mascoutin, Odawa, Sauk, Mesquaki, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Ojibwe and Chickasaw Nations.”

This reflects a deep commitment that the University of Illinois shares with Big Ten schools to provide an inclusive environment for students, faculty and staff.

It would be fair—though cringe-worthy—for Big Ten schools to open athletic events by asserting the “historical context” in which they have denied blacks from their athletic teams since 1869—when Rutgers played Princeton in the first college football game – by the 1940s; and denied women participation in athletics until the 1970s.

These are the two worlds occupying the same space at Big Ten universities—one with inclusive sensibilities, norms, and policies, the other built on a different cultural, political, and public relations model.

Donald Trump’s second presidency will likely test how Big Ten schools approach the long-standing divide between their academic and athletic spheres.

In fact, the first test has already taken place. When Big Ten schools canceled their first football season with COVID-19, then-President Trump’s tweets sparked backlash from football fans. Nebraska considered leaving the Big Ten.

Schools – which treated academic and sporting spaces under similar social distancing and testing policies – quickly caved to this pressure.

No one experienced this more directly than the athletes, who played against other teams in normal contact and proximity to each other while attending Zoom classes with other students.

What challenges lie ahead for Big Ten schools during Trump’s second presidency?

His campaign attacked Kamala Harris’ support for transgender rights.

The NCAA — and its Big Ten members — have a policy that is closer to Harris’ position than his own: “At its meeting on January 19, 2022, the NCAA Board of Governors updated the transgender student-athlete participation policy that governs college sports. The new policy aligns the participation of transgender student-athletes with the Olympic movement.”

If President Trump doesn’t challenge the NCAA policy on Twitter, his Department of Education will still end the Title IX policy that extends to transgender athletes.

But this is just the beginning.

Following President Joe Biden’s precedent of firing his predecessor’s general counsel from the National Labor Relations Board, President Trump will likely fire Biden’s NLRB general counsel.

That could end the NLRB’s current case against the University of Southern California, the Pac-12 and the NCAA.

It also could end the NLRB’s handling of a representation case involving Dartmouth basketball players who voted for a union.

The NCAA’s top priority includes HR 8534, which would state that “a student athlete (or former student athlete) may not be considered an employee of an institution, conference, or association under any federal or state law or regulation based on the student-athlete’s (or former student-athlete’s) participation in a university intercollegiate athletic program or university intercollegiate athletic competition.”

Notice here the passage in the past tense, which refers to a “former student athlete.” This language directly targets Johnson v. NCAA, the case in which a federal appeals court allowed a lawsuit under the Fair Labor Standards Act to proceed.

It is the first court opinion to allow a court to rule that college athletes must receive minimum wage and overtime.

Trump’s NCAA agenda would give Big Ten sports programs more freedom to increase their massive revenues while avoiding the legal responsibilities and high costs of hiring their front-line workers, the athletes.

But the academic side of the Big Ten schools could face a different future.

Trump’s promise to eliminate the Department of Education would raise questions about the future of Pell grants, which provide federal financial aid to needy students.

To understand the importance of Pell grants, look at small Carroll College, a Catholic school in rural Montana. In September, the school announced that “the launch of the Pell Promise for Montana students” is “a decisive step in its commitment to support underserved communities.”

The school adds, “The Pell Promise is a testament to Carroll College’s dedication to the principles of Catholic social justice and its role in improving lives through education.”

Then consider Trump’s campaign promise to put Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to the leadership of health policy, allowing it to ‘become health’.

In October, RFK revealed, “The key that I think is — you know, that President Trump promised me is — is control of the public health agencies, which is HHS and its sub-agencies, CDC, FDA, NIH and others, and then also the USDA, which is – which, you know, is the key to making America healthy.”

Some of these agencies fund research grants for Big Ten schools. For example, Indiana University School of Medicine investigators received more than $243 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding in 2023.

Financial impact of withdrawn federal funding in dozens of grant-funded labs, faculty positions and Ph.D. internships and support for campus facilities are unknown.

But the trend line is worrying.

How would Big Ten schools deal with the financial consequences of suspended grants or funding agencies, should this materialize?

Forecasting the future is dangerous, but this much can be safely said. Big Ten schools have lived a charmed double life since the conference was founded in a Chicago hotel in 1896 — living Monday through Friday as academic institutions guided by academic ideals while living as semi-pro football operations on Saturdays.

So far, Big Ten schools have been able to have it both ways, as academic and athletic enterprises. But the time may be coming when they will be forced to prioritize one enterprise directly at the expense of the other.