Magic + Loss

Magic + Loss

The Big Ten Blocks and Tackles

18 universities with 44 million fans take on Trump.

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Virginia Heffernan
Jul 29, 2025
∙ Paid

The country can do better than the Ivy League. We need academic institutions with the resources, integrity, and chutzpah to mount a real defense against Trump’s attacks. The Ivy League seemed to be faltering, so I turned to the Big Ten.

What I found was hard power. The Big Ten—now 18 schools across 16 states—has a mutual defense compact, nuclear reactor…

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