Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images
Conference realignment is out of control.
Katie Ledecky dominated the 1,500-meter freestyle final Wednesday at the Paris Summer Olympics, which is certainly nothing out of the ordinary. Since appearing on the global stage Ledecky has owned the event, and she set another Olympic record on her way to capturing gold.
Wednesday she simply left the field behind, often appearing as the only swimmer in the frame:
But while her dominance was normal, where some of the congratulations poured in from was anything but, and a reminder of the changing collegiate landscape.
Shortly after Ledecky’s victory, the Atlantic Coast Conference sent out a congratulations tweet honoring Ledecky, a 2021 graduate of Stanford University. The ACC’s message included the conference’s tagline “Accomplish Greatness,” along with the hashtag “Olympians Made Here:”
Now … read that again.
Stanford is one of the schools joining the ACC this season, along with the University of California, Berkeley as well as Southern Methodist University (SMU). While SMU became a full member on July 1, 2024, the two former- Pac-12 schools will become full members at the start of August.
Conference realignment always takes some getting used to. The ACC sending out a congratulatory message for a Stanford athlete — who graduated from Stanford years before the school joined the ACC — is just the latest reminder that this year will take some getting used to.
