What We’re Talking About
At the end of the day, sports is about winning and losing; otherwise gymnastics is just an acrobatic show. One of the most glaring problems with the current NCAA system is that wins and losses don’t matter. What matters is the scores you accumulate throughout the season. The obvious problem with this is inconsistencies in scoring. What might be a 9.850 in one meet could be a 9.925 in another. Of course, that’s a systematic judging problem, which lacks oversight, transparency and technology, but that’s for another column. So if the scoring is really high (or loose) in a particular meet, your rankings get boosted, even if you’re competing subpar gymnastics. In the current system, losing a meet in a high scoring affair is actually better than winning a meet in a low scoring dual. That’s not good.
So what’s the solution? It’s all about incentives. We need to make winning valuable. If we look to other sports, winning grants teams home venue advantage or a bye in the first round of the bracket. People will be quick to argue about the logistics of a home meet advantage, which is fair but not impossible. Imagine the excitement of a week four meet knowing it could ultimately result in one of those teams getting a bye to the Regional final based on in-season win/loss records. Again, I understand there will be arguments made about strength of schedule, etc. Again, these are things to consider, but not impossible hurdles, just excuses. More gymnastics-specific benefits could also be implemented; e.g., the winningest teams get rotation preference (they might wish to start on uneven bars, for example); or the top two seeds based on their record get to choose the session they compete in for their region.
The most exciting thing about college gymnastics is that it’s team oriented. College football realized team versus team elimination is what everyone wanted after they first implemented a playoff system in 2014 and “quickly” expanded the bracket from four teams to 12 in 2024–meaning more head to head games would determine a champion, not an algorithm or arbitrary voting. Gymnastics already has an inclusive bracket, making the postseason exciting because the winners advance. What the sport needs now is a reason to cheer for wins during the regular season.
Feelings
- Upsets are great for the sport.
- We wish wins and losses mattered: home venue advantage, postseason bye, postseason session or rotation preference…
- Lily Smith will be fine on a raised podium
- We’re happy Mike Tomlin gets to enjoy gymnastics now that he’s stepping away from the ball sports
- Michele Strom knows it hits different when it’s your kid
- We need more Heated Rivalry speeches please
- We predict Jordan Chiles will get her Gym Slam before the postseason
- We can do better than Gym Slam: Quad Crown, Career Quad, The Perfect Rotation, 40 Club, Golden Rotation…
- A different team ranks No. 1 on all four apparatus (VT – Oklahoma, UB – Florida, BB – Michigan, FX Georgia)
- Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me
- Bonus: You should definitely get your Live Show Season Pass and/or your Cecile Landi Live Show Replay Ticket
Facts
- Jordan Chiles scored her first perfect 10 on vault
- Sprouts Quad was the most-watched regular season live college gymnastics meet ever on ESPN networks
- A record 1.5 million-plus fans registered for LA 2028 tickets in the first 24 hours
-
- You can register for the ticket draw here: https://tickets.la28.org
-
- Shawn Johnson and Husband Andrew East co-authored a book
- Acrobatics and Tumbling have been elevated to Championship status in the NCAA
- Laurie Hernandez has a movie coming out
- Tom Forster is back
- No. 20 Minnesota upset No. 5 Michigan
- The fourth time in a row the Gophers beat the Wolverines
- British Gymnastics launched a rebrand
- Still no 198s on the season
- Abby Royer score the highest floor score in Southern Connecticut’s history
- Bonus: Get – The Balance: My Years Coaching Simone Biles for under $5!
Award(s)
-
- Perfect Vaulter: Jordan Chiles
- Bars Assassin – Azaraya Ra-Akbar
What’s On the Socials?
View this post on Instagram
@.alyssaorgen No one understands this lore the same way😔😔😔 #heatedrivalry
View this post on Instagram
Quotes
“I have to be the worst off, I have to be the sickest one here.”
~ Levi Jung-Ruivivar, Stanford Olympian
Levi gave an interview where she opened up about her internal struggles battling an eating disorder.
♦
“I’m really excited to see where this team can go because we have so much more left in the tank.”
~ Lily Smith , Bulldog with Wings
The new Red Bull athlete expresses her excitement for the upcoming season after Georgia upset LSU.
♦
“Our ladies were hype on the vault. A little too much sauce.”
~ Jenny Rowland, Gator Coach
Rowland explaining the vault rotation that only saw one routine crack 9.9 before the Gators stormed back to win the meet.
♦♦♦
What? You want even more? Join Club Gym Nerd and you get a bonus episode, College & Cocktails, every weekend after our meet of the week. Once the NCAA season is over you continue to get a weekly bonus episode every Friday afternoon. Plus you get access to all of our archives, exclusive content and more. Then we give the sober analysis on Monday (or Tuesday) after we’ve allowed the data to penetrate our feelings.
This column was composed and compiled by Steve Cooper, Editor at GymCastic and co-author of “The Balance: My Years Coaching Simone Biles“; some thoughts culled from hosts Jessica O’Beirne and Spencer Barnes.
Prefer to get this delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the newsletter here.