High Stakes Meet Higher Scores At The 2026 NCAA Gymnastics Championships

When NCAA Gymnastics’ top eight teams take to the floor this Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas, fans can expect a few things: high-level talent, high stakes, and even higher scores.

The competition begins on Thursday, April 16, with two National Semifinals – effectively, the sport’s ‘Elite Eight’ round. Four teams will compete in each semifinal, and the top two finishers will advance to the NCAA National Championship on Saturday.

This year’s field is both unique in its composition and uniquely talented. While the sport’s powerhouses – Oklahoma, LSU, Florida, and UCLA – return for another battle on the national stage, surging programs like Georgia, Stanford, Arkansas, and Minnesota head to Texas ready to shake up the standings.

But most of all, the eight programs will need to weather the storm.

The Perfect Scoring Storm

Former ESPN Commentator and U.S. Olympic medalist Kathy Johnson Clarke describes the current collegiate climate as a “perfect storm.” It’s a storm that pulls from many sources, both good and bad.

The storm brings increased television coverage to a growing sport (good). With increased visibility and growth, so has come an “obsession with huge scores" (bad).

Scoring has skyrocketed in recent years, in proportion with increased coverage and athlete visibility in the new era of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). Since 2022, perfect tens have become more common than not. In 2024, judges awarded almost 90 perfect scores, the highest amount awarded since 2004.

In 2024, an attempt was made to tranquilize the lenient evaluations. The Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) announced a judging evaluation system established “to create a level playing field of scores across the country.” Dubbed the “SCORE Board,” the proposed system would evaluate the quality of the judges.

Though the gymnastics community had high hopes for progress, the WCGA has been slow to roll out the program due to financial and logistical constraints.

In the fall of 2025, the board confirmed to me that the program remains in its "pilot stage" and “will not be used as criteria for ranking or assigning officials to the 2026 NCAA postseason.”

Though judges awarded 45 perfect scores in 2025 and 44 thus far in 2026 – a marked decrease from 87 in 2024, many experts maintain that the scoring remains inflated across the board.

Designing The Game of Gymnastics

Though the conversation surrounding perfect scores remains contentious, perfect tens can often catalyze program growth. The score is now synonymous with women’s college gymnastics, with perfect-ten routines garnering millions of views across TikTok, X, and Instagram.

Though the scores might be inflated and highly contested by the sport’s most dedicated fans, perfect tens bring new eyes to college gymnastics. Broadcasters have responded accordingly.

The sport’s growing popularity has led to distinct changes in how fans and spectators interact with it. Organizers have helped make gymnastics “more like a game,” Johnson Clarke tells me.

With judges only penalizing obvious errors: a fall, a wobble, a step on a landing, even the most inexperienced fan can watch a balance beam routine and logically anticipate its score. “Fans can get excited because they do know how a game is played,” Johnson Clarke adds.

Fans can now view the sport like they would football: offense and defense (we’ll forget special teams for a moment). The athlete competing is on offense, trying to score as high as possible. The defense is the Code of Points.

The defense has been underperforming. "Since [the defense] is not in play – at least not in any huge sense—nothing is being deducted that the casual fan can’t see," Johnson Clarke admits, chuckling.

Finding Joy in the Eye of the Storm

For the avid fans who mourn gymnastics’ withering defensive line, Johnson Clarke also has a message: find the joy in watching your sport.

“Enjoy the athletes. Enjoy the sport. View it as a game—an exciting game—and see who comes out on top... or just who has their best meet. That’s to be celebrated.”

Over the last decade, we’ve seen countless records fall. In 2017, the Oklahoma Sooners posted the highest NCAA Championship score in the sport’s history (198.3875). From 2016 to 2025, all but one NCAA team champion scored a 198 or above – that’s an average of a 9.9+ on each routine. In the previous decade, only one winning team reached that golden benchmark.

The 2026 NCAA Championships in Fort Worth represent a pivotal moment and a pivotal question: Will the 'defense’ finally fight back, or will the 'offense’ continue to run up the score?

This article was originally published on Forbes.com