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

[cuuf]

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.

fine work!

 

[Peridot]

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.

Thank you for this very detailed reply!

I probably should have prefaced by saying I’m not American so don’t really have a great understanding of sport or college in the US; but I think I can kind of piece it together from this description and from what others have said.
I’ll have to try and watch more of it this year and see if I can really come to an understanding!
Thanks again

 

[Peridot]

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!

I think maybe yes, I need to pick a team to follow

 

[QuietColours]

I think maybe yes, I need to pick a team to follow

A lot of people getting into NCAA start with watching teams that feature their favorite elites. Seeing their teams and the teams they compete against will give you a sense for some of the different styles, and you can pick who you want to follow.

It's also often heavily influenced by which teams you can regularly watch for free (I'll die on the hill that if Denver didn't insist on using a school-specific channel for all their meets, they'd have a lot more fans because they'd be easier to follow).

 

[RichardL]

Jordan Chiles still has the best DTY on the US team. Also the double layout bars dismount looks amazing on her. I'd love to see her back in elite this summer alongside a healthy Rivera, Jones, and Pease.

 

[blake]

I'm impressed Brie Clark learned a good tsuk 1/1 in the span of like 4 months. Maybe it's because of the time she sat out waiting for Clemson's inaugural season, but I can't believe she's a senior already.