NCAA 2026 Week 1: Friday January 2-Sunday January 4

[irichluck21]

It's finally here!

2026 Week 1 — Schedule & Links

Visit the post for more.

balancebeamsituation.com

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MEET WEEK 1​

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Friday, January 2​

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[td]7:30pm ET/
4:30pm PT[/td][td]LSU Exhibition[/td]

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SEC+​

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[td]9:00pm ET/
6:00pm PT[/td][td]Minnesota
Iowa
@ Utah[/td]

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SCORES​

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ESPN+​

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Saturday, January 3​

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[td]3:00pm ET/
12:00pm PT[/td][td]Stout
Greenville
Winona State
@ Oshkosh[/td]

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SCORES​

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FREE​

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[td]6:00pm ET/
3:00pm PT[/td][td]UCLA
Cal
Oregon State
@ Washington[/td]

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SCORES​

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BTN+1
BTN+2​

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Sunday, January 4​

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[td]1:00pm ET/
10:00am PT[/td][td]Wilberforce
@ W. Michigan[/td]

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SCORES​

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[td]2:00pm ET/
11:00am PT[/td][td]Towson
@ Clemson[/td]

[td]

SCORES​

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ACC+​

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[td]2:00pm ET/
11:00am PT[/td][td]Temple
Brockport
@ Rutgers[/td]

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SCORES​

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BTN+​

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[td]3:00pm ET/
12:00pm PT[/td][td]Iowa State
@ Missouri[/td]

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SCORES​

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SEC+​

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Minnesota, Iowa, Utah is a great start to the season. Interesting to see what happens in the "Pac 12 Invitational" between UCLA, Washington, Cal, and Oregon State. Specifically how Cal looks post Howells and OSU post Jade Carey.

 

[makam]

Formatting is wonky. You might have to put it through plain text before copying to strip out some of the spreadsheet stuff.

 

[irichluck21]

Ah bummer it looked good in the post before I sent.

I linked Spencer's page anyway at least.

 

[cuuf]

Yessss! Despite all the whining and moaning about NCAA gymnastics, I am very excited for it to be back! Get to see some intriguing teams right off the bat!

 

[BB12]

So happy it's finally back.

 

[RedBirdie]

I have seen far too many wolf turns on floor and it's only the 4th routine.

Already heard complaining about how meeeeeean the NCAA is to Utah with the new neutral site rule.

Beam scoring is taking WAY too long.

 

[BB12]

LSU looked great on bars but I wasn't convinced on their floor or vault yet. They will need a lot of improvement in a week if they want to win the Sprouts meet.

Utah easily the best at their meet. Overall, looking very solid and much improved on vault compared to this time last year. I enjoyed Minnesota on floor and that should be a good event from them once they tidy up the landings. And great to see Henderson bak for Iowa.

 

[cuuf]

Utah is my darkhorse. They did not lose that much scoring and have some good new pieces that can help. The core of their scoring is back from last year and more experienced.

LSU just has too much to make up with sooo many new faces. Im sorry, you dont just replace two of the greatest gymnasts of their program history along with a large cast of contributing role players like KJ and Sierra.with a few transfers and freshman (no offense to them) They are very talented and will be there in the mix, but I dont see them a real threat for at least another year.

 

[RedBirdie]

Virtius re-did their mobile interface for this season. It is much improved and so much easier to use (at least for the Utah tri-meet)

 

[RedBirdie]

Scores are flying at the Washington quad,. particularly compared to last night.

 

[cuuf]

Ya things got a little loose at the end of the meet

 

[BB12]

Mizzou looking good but they are getting that SEC home scoring treatment.

 

[RedBirdie]

Damn, looked at the scores and Iowa State basically had a full meet meltdown.

 

[irichluck21]

Howells' influence on Clemson is already immediate.
6 10.0 sv vaults.

 

[Peridot]

I watched a meet on YouTube (I’m not actually sure what I watched, Cal, Oregon, UCLA).
Can someone give me a rundown on how this all works? Who competes against who? How the season works etc? What the different ?divisions Mean - pac10 etc.
Maybe this will be the year I actually understand it all and can follow properly
Thanks!

 

[makam]

I watched a meet on YouTube (I’m not actually sure what I watched, Cal, Oregon, UCLA).
Can someone give me a rundown on how this all works? Who competes against who? How the season works etc? What the different ?divisions Mean - pac10 etc.
Maybe this will be the year I actually understand it all and can follow properly
Thanks!

So I am not an expert, but division wins are basically just bragging rights. Like, who the SEC champ is only matters to school boosters and alums. In-conference meets often net generous scores though which helps season rankings so there is a benefit. That said, a team can be ranked 30th and still have a (long) shot at winning the championship. (Long because early sessions often get less generous scoring than the primetime sessions. Is that because of the quality of the teams or do the judges judge a bit on reputation...Who can say? (Yes)).

Basically the regular season seems mostly about finding the best line ups, managing athlete health, and trying to establish a reputation that nets you the benefit of doubt in scoring.

If TopTeamUniversity is getting 198s all season, judges giving them a deserved 196 for a bad day feels like a vendetta and 198s sell tickets and ad time. So judges well be reluctant to score them that harshly and likely apply some cushion so they only end up with a 197.

 

[MaryClare]

I watched a meet on YouTube (I’m not actually sure what I watched, Cal, Oregon, UCLA).
Can someone give me a rundown on how this all works? Who competes against who? How the season works etc? What the different ?divisions Mean - pac10 etc.
Maybe this will be the year I actually understand it all and can follow properly
Thanks!

I’m fairly new to following ncaa and I found it very confusing. Especially because I have no cultural background of college sports.

The meet you watched is known as the best of the west. It’s the top ranked west coast programs. UCLA is the only one of those with a real shot at the national title.

The conferences are the same as in any other ncaa sport. You will play all the other teams in your conference over the course of the season. Culminating in a conference championship. The major conference by far for gymnastics is the SEC.

However, teams will also have meets with colleges from other conferences. Sometimes these can be tri or quad meet. But there’s no rhyme or reason to it. It could be due to sponsors, it could be due to the head coaches being best friends.

To qualify to nationals, it’s done by the highest average team score. Although individuals from schools who don’t qualify can qualify as top individuals. So it’s kinda like the Olympic qualification process.

Basically it’s like early 90s gymnastics. A hit routine is 9.9, the dominant teams get some highly dubious 10s and literally anyone could potentially win vault whilst the commentators get excited about one DTY that isn’t really worth it.

 

[irichluck21]

Here are some helpful websites for NCAA beginners.

Balance Beam Situation: Clickable Code of Point, Team Depth charts, meet live blogs, NQS calculator. Spencer does it all.

College Gymnastics News: Also meet live blogs, fantasy gymnastics, gymnast interviews, leotard ratings, and more.

Road To Nationals: Meet coverage, Results, NQS, team rankings on individual events, tracking team finishes by seasons (goes back to 1998 I think), individual athlete score history, and more.

Conferences
Conferences pretty much align with football/basketball sport conferences.
Here is run down. These are basically the "leagues".

ACC (6): Clemson, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Cal, Pittsburgh, Stanford

SEC (9): Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Florida, LSU, Auburn

Big Ten (12): Rutgers, Maryland, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, Washington, UCLA, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota

Mountain West (4): San Jose State, Utah State, Boise State, Air Force

Mountain Pacific (4) Alaska, Southern Utah, Sacramento State, UC Davis

Big 12 (7): Utah, Arizona State, Arizona, West Virginia, BYU, Iowa State, Denver

Gymnastics East Conference/GEC (8): Bridgeport, SCSU, Penn, Yale, West Chester, Brown, Cornell, William & Mary

East Atlantic Gymnastics League/EAGL (5): George Washington, New Hampshire, LIU, Temple, Towson

MAC (7): Northern Illinois, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Ball State, Kent State

Independent (4): Greenville, Wilberforce, Fisk (final season), Oregon State

MIC (4): Texas Woman's, Illinois State, South East Missouri/SEMO, Centenary

NCGA East (7): Springfield, Cortland, Ithaca, Utica, Brockport, Rhode Island College, Ursinus

NCGA West/WIAC (9) UW-Whitewater, UW OshKosh, UW La Crosse, UW Eau Claire, UW Stout, Hamline, Gustavus Adolphus, Simpson, Winona State

Divisions
Divisions are based on where the school is in terms of scholarships/full rides.

Division 1 are most of the schools- they offer full scholarships and can have up to 20 on the roster under scholarship. Not all D1 schools will have 20 scholarships. some schools offer less. 62 schools are D1.

Division 2 are allowed to have 6 gymnasts on the roster with athletic scholarship. There are 5 schools that sponsor gymnastics, counting Fisk which is not in the NCAA.

Division 3 do not have athletic scholarships. 19 schools are D3.

There is a separate USAG Collegiate Nationals that are contested by D1 with less than 7.5 gymnasts on scholarship and D2 teams plus D3 teams-not part of NCGA. The meet was rebranded WGCNIC (Women's Gymnastics Collegiate National Invitational Championships.
The team that compete are (10): Wilberforce (3), Centenary (3), Greenville (3), Fisk (NAIA D 2), SCSU (2), West Chester (2), Alaska (1), Bridgeport (2), SEMO (1), Texas Woman's (2)


There are three "national" championships.
1. NCAA Gymnastics Tournament: 36 teams and individuals qualify to 4 regionals. 8 teams qualify to NCAA National Semi-Finals, 4 on the Floor Championship. Mostly D1 teams but D2 teams have qualified to regionals as a full team in the past, though rare.

2. NCGA Nationals (D3 teams): 2 teams from NCGA East and 2 teams from NCGA West qualify based on top 2 finish at Regionals, then 1 team from each Regional with the highest NQS qualifies, plus individuals.

3. WGCNIC.

 

[irichluck21]

Lots of Week 1 meets here:

#1 Gym Fan

Gymnastics

www.youtube.com

 

[daniTS]

Here are some helpful websites for NCAA beginners.

Balance Beam Situation: Clickable Code of Point, Team Depth charts, meet live blogs, NQS calculator. Spencer does it all.

College Gymnastics News: Also meet live blogs, fantasy gymnastics, gymnast interviews, leotard ratings, and more.

Road To Nationals: Meet coverage, Results, NQS, team rankings on individual events, tracking team finishes by seasons (goes back to 1998 I think), individual athlete score history, and more.

Conferences
Conferences pretty much align with football/basketball sport conferences.
Here is run down. These are basically the "leagues".

ACC (6): Clemson, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Cal, Pittsburgh, Stanford

SEC (9): Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Florida, LSU, Auburn

Big Ten (12): Rutgers, Maryland, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, Washington, UCLA, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota

Mountain West (4): San Jose State, Utah State, Boise State, Air Force

Mountain Pacific (4) Alaska, Southern Utah, Sacramento State, UC Davis

Big 12 (7): Utah, Arizona State, Arizona, West Virginia, BYU, Iowa State, Denver

Gymnastics East Conference/GEC (8): Bridgeport, SCSU, Penn, Yale, West Chester, Brown, Cornell, William & Mary

East Atlantic Gymnastics League/EAGL (5): George Washington, New Hampshire, LIU, Temple, Towson

MAC (7): Northern Illinois, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Ball State, Kent State

Independent (4): Greenville, Wilberforce, Fisk (final season), Oregon State

MIC (4): Texas Woman's, Illinois State, South East Missouri/SEMO, Centenary

NCGA East (7): Springfield, Cortland, Ithaca, Utica, Brockport, Rhode Island College, Ursinus

NCGA West/WIAC (9) UW-Whitewater, UW OshKosh, UW La Crosse, UW Eau Claire, UW Stout, Hamline, Gustavus Adolphus, Simpson, Winona State

Divisions
Divisions are based on where the school is in terms of scholarships/full rides.

Division 1 are most of the schools- they offer full scholarships and can have up to 20 on the roster under scholarship. Not all D1 schools will have 20 scholarships. some schools offer less. 62 schools are D1.

Division 2 are allowed to have 6 gymnasts on the roster with athletic scholarship. There are 5 schools that sponsor gymnastics, counting Fisk which is not in the NCAA.

Division 3 do not have athletic scholarships. 19 schools are D3.

There is a separate USAG Collegiate Nationals that are contested by D1 with less than 7.5 gymnasts on scholarship and D2 teams plus D3 teams-not part of NCGA. The meet was rebranded WGCNIC (Women's Gymnastics Collegiate National Invitational Championships.
The team that compete are (10): Wilberforce (3), Centenary (3), Greenville (3), Fisk (NAIA D 2), SCSU (2), West Chester (2), Alaska (1), Bridgeport (2), SEMO (1), Texas Woman's (2)


There are three "national" championships.
1. NCAA Gymnastics Tournament: 36 teams and individuals qualify to 4 regionals. 8 teams qualify to NCAA National Semi-Finals, 4 on the Floor Championship. Mostly D1 teams but D2 teams have qualified to regionals as a full team in the past, though rare.

2. NCGA Nationals (D3 teams): 2 teams from NCGA East and 2 teams from NCGA West qualify based on top 2 finish at Regionals, then 1 team from each Regional with the highest NQS qualifies, plus individuals.

3. WGCNIC.

I watched a meet on YouTube (I’m not actually sure what I watched, Cal, Oregon, UCLA).
Can someone give me a rundown on how this all works? Who competes against who? How the season works etc? What the different ?divisions Mean - pac10 etc.
Maybe this will be the year I actually understand it all and can follow properly
Thanks!

Other than the websites listed below, All Things Gymnastics podcast do a ton of mostly interview-based ncaa content, including interviews with head coaches leading up to the start of season, where they often talk about their athletes and team goals, and then a recruit round up series in the off season that interviews recently recruited athletes about their process. It won’t nesc. explain how it works overall but might help you connect with a team or two to cheer for, if you’re interested in that!