If you enjoyed gymnastics during the Summer Olympics last year, you might be wondering how you can make it four years before you watch gymnastics again. Well, I have good news for you. There is a ton of great gymnastics happening right now in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The gymnastics season lasts from January to April, and it’s always exciting. Here’s a primer in case you want to watch gymnastics on a yearly basis, not just every Olympic season.
How does it work?
NCAA gymnastics is a team competition. Each team puts up six gymnasts per apparatus. Five scores count, and the lowest score is dropped. At the end of the competition, the team with the highest score wins, and different gymnasts can win individual event titles and the all around. Like most NCAA sports, gymnastics starts off with competition within individual conferences. Teams go head-to-head in what are called “dual meets,” as well as occasional meets between three or four teams (or “quad meets”). These meets make up the regular season. Then we move into the postseason, starting with conference championships (the biggest conferences for gymnastics at the moment are the SEC, the Big 10, the Big 12 and the ACC). Following conference championships are regional competitions between the top 36 teams. This top 36 is whittled down to the eight who go to the National Championships, where a winner is crowned.
In short, this boils down to a lot of gymnastics. There are usually a couple dozen meets every week, and you can watch many of them for free on YouTube.
Which teams are good?
Every college sport has different powerhouses. In gymnastics, the most dominant program at the moment is the University of Oklahoma, which has won six of the past 10 NCAA championships. However, they were eliminated in dramatic fashion from the national semifinal last year, so anything can happen. Some other top programs right now include the University of Florida, UC Berkeley, the University of Utah and LSU. UCLA and the University of Michigan have won recently and are trying to make it back to the national finals. And teams like Missouri, Michigan State, Stanford, Kentucky and Ohio State might be able to challenge for nationals as well.
Any gymnasts I know?
Something else that’s fun about NCAA gymnastics is the fact that you can root for certain teams and be a fan of different gymnasts across the teams. Some big names competing in the NCAA are U.S. Olympians Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles, as well as Olympic alternates Leanne Wong and Joscelyn Roberson. But NCAA gymnastics draws from a wider pool of talent than elite gymnastics does, and some college stars come out of the Level 10 club gymnastics scene. Some of the best gymnasts in college right now include reigning all-around champion Haleigh Bryant for LSU and Oklahoma’s bars superstar Audrey Davis.
What’s happened so far?
We’re now on week three of the regular season. Oklahoma is sitting at the top of the rankings, closely followed by LSU and Florida. This period of in-conference dual meets is a great time for a new viewer to start watching, as these meets are easy to watch and very entertaining. It will take a few more weeks before the regionals picture starts to emerge, but it’s certainly going to be an exciting season.
If you need your gymnastics fix before 2028, I highly recommend checking out NCAA gymnastics. It’s fun to watch, the team format adds a new dimension to the sport, and there are so many meets to watch.
