Big Ten, SEC, ACC = Dominant Leagues With Most Athletes In Summer Olympics

By David Glenn

 

Nearly 1,000 National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes, representing more than 200 universities and more than 100 countries, are participating in the 2024 Summer Olympics in France, according to an NCAA Olympics Dashboard tracking current, former and incoming athletes at the organization’s member schools.

This year’s Summer Olympic Games, based mainly in Paris, technically begin today, with a handful of events that required an early start for scheduling purposes. The quadrennial extravaganza launches in earnest Friday, with an elaborate Opening Ceremony that is expected to attract approximately 100,000 ticketed spectators, in additional to hundreds of thousands of non-paying observers along a lengthy parade route in Paris.

More than 50 NCAA leagues (see list of leaders below) are represented in France, with the Big Ten Conference (249 athletes), Southeastern Conference (229) and Atlantic Coast Conference (223) leading the way. According to the NCAA, the exact numbers on its Olympics Dashboard may change slightly in the coming days, as the organization continues to track late changes and coordinate with its member schools for accuracy purposes.

Two brand-new ACC members, Stanford (51 athletes) and California (39), rank among the five biggest NCAA-based producers of participants at this year’s Summer Olympics. Among ACC schools, Duke (18), Florida State (17), Virginia (16), Notre Dame (14), NC State (11), Louisville (10) and North Carolina (10) also are represented by 10 or more athletes in France.

More than 200 countries are competing at the 2024 Summer Olympics, and roughly half of them have at least one NCAA athlete on their roster. The 13 nations bolstered by the most current, former and incoming NCAA athletes are the United States (385), Canada (130), Australia (32), Jamaica (32), Nigeria (30), Great Britain (26), Spain (26), Puerto Rico (22), Germany (20), New Zealand (15), France (14), the Netherlands (10) and Sweden (10).

Among the 32 sports being contested in France, 14 will include 10 or more athletes who are affiliated with NCAA universities: track and field (290), swimming (182), basketball (122), golf (65), water polo (57), soccer (54), rowing (45), volleyball (36), diving (28), fencing (28), wrestling (22), field hockey (19), gymnastics (19) and tennis (15).

(AP Photo/Michael Euler, File)

In the United States, the Summer Olympic Games are being televised by NBC, the USA Network, CNBC, E!, The Golf Channel, Telemundo (Spanish language) and Universo (Spanish language). Full-scale streaming coverage is available with a Peacock Premium subscription, and other live streaming coverage, highlights and commentary are available at NBCOlympics.com and NBC.com and via the NBC Olympics and NBC apps.

The event’s Closing Ceremony will take place Aug. 11.

2024 Summer Olympics Athletes

(Top 10 NCAA Conferences)

  1. Big Ten — 249
  2. SEC — 229
  3. ACC – 223
  4. Big 12 — 105
  5. Ivy League — 54
  6. Big West — 18
  7. Mountain West — 17
  8. Big East — 16
  9. American — 15
  10. West Coast — 15

(Top 10 NCAA Universities)

  1. Stanford, ACC — 51
  2. Southern Cal, Big Ten — 44
  3. Michigan, Big Ten — 42
  4. Florida, SEC — 40
  5. California, ACC — 39
  6. Texas, SEC — 30
  7. LSU, SEC — 28
  8. Tennessee, SEC — 27
  9. UCLA, Big Ten — 24
  10. Arkansas, SEC — 23

(Other ACC/NC Universities)

Duke, ACC — 18

Florida State, ACC — 17

Virginia, ACC — 16

Notre Dame, ACC — 14

NC State, ACC — 11

Louisville, ACC — 10

North Carolina, ACC — 10

Miami, ACC — 9

Virginia Tech, ACC — 9

Clemson, ACC — 6

Syracuse, ACC — 5

Georgia Tech, ACC — 4

Pittsburgh, ACC — 3

Wake Forest, ACC — 3

Boston College, ACC — 1

Davidson, Atlantic-10 — 1

Johnson C Smith, CIAA — 1

Livingstone, CIAA — 1

North Carolina A&T, CAA — 1

Queens, Atlantic Sun — 1

David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.

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