NCAA Gymnastics Semifinals: A Comprehensive Guide

The NCAA postseason officially commences the day after the conference championships, encompassing both regional and national competitions. This article delves into the intricacies of the NCAA gymnastics semifinals, providing a structured overview of the qualification process, competition format, and key considerations.

Postseason Levels in Collegiate Gymnastics

Collegiate gymnastics features three levels of postseason competition:

NCAA: Open to all varsity teams.
WCGA: Open to schools with the equivalent of six full scholarships or those ranked No.
NCGA: A championship for Division III schools

Regular Season and Rankings

The journey to the NCAA Gymnastics Semifinals begins with the regular season. Initially, team rankings are based on the team score average until around the eighth week of the 15-week season. Subsequently, the National Qualifying Score (NQS) determines rankings. NQS is calculated by considering a team's top six scores, with at least three from away meets, dropping the highest score, and averaging the remaining five.

Conference Championships

There are 13 conferences in collegiate gymnastics across the three divisions. The Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC are considered the "Big 4" conferences, akin to Power 5 conferences in football. The MIC (Midwest Independent Conference) stands out as the only conference with teams from all three divisions, while the WIAC (Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) and NCGA-East are exclusively composed of DIII teams. The GEC (Gymnastics East Conference) includes teams from Divisions I and II.

The concept of a regular-season champion is relatively new to gymnastics, and its determination varies across conferences. For example, the Big Ten previously used its "Big Fives" meet to seed for the Big Ten Championship. However, in 2020, it switched to seeding by national ranking, similar to other conferences, with the top four teams qualifying for the night session and the bottom six for the afternoon session. In 2022, the conference again changed the criteria and now uses in-conference win-loss records to seed the championship.

NCAA Regionals Qualification

The top 36 teams based on NQS qualify for regionals. The top 16 teams are seeded, while No. 17-36 are placed geographically. For placement, teams ranked Nos. 1/8/9/16 are seeded into one regional, Nos. 2/7/10/15 into another, Nos. 3/6/11/14 into the third, and Nos. 4/5/12/13 into the final regional.

According to NCAA postseason rules, if host conflicts arise, "the lowest-seeded host in the group will be exchanged with a non-host that holds a spot not greater or less than two seeded positions (and preferably one position) when possible." Oregon State, in 2019, had to be shifted three positions because of conflicts in the first two adjusted scenarios.

If a team declines its spot at regionals, the next-highest-ranked team based on NQS will be selected. Any of the 81 teams are eligible to qualify to compete at NCAA regionals.

NCAA Regionals Competition Format

Regionals is a four-day competition, including one rest day. Day one features a dual meet between the two "play-in" teams, with the winner advancing to compete in the second session on day two. In each of the two-day two sessions, the top two teams will advance to the regional final, where the top two teams from that quad meet advance to NCAA semifinals in two weeks. In 2023, the NCAA split the four regional sites into separate Wednesday/Thursday/Saturday and Thursday/Friday/Sunday competition schedules.

The top 12 all-arounders and top 16 individual event specialists on each event, who are not on a top 28 qualifying team, make it to regionals. Individuals from teams competing in round one are included in the list of individual qualifiers in case their team doesn’t advance out of round one. No alternates are named for regionals or nationals for individual qualifiers. These individuals are placed at a regional competition geographically.

Read also: Crafting Your NCAA Profile

The NCAA outlines specific parameters to determine the session in which individual competitors participate: "To ensure the top-seeded teams have the least number of individuals competing with them, the committee will pair the highest-ranked all-arounder at the site with the lowest-seeded team (or lowest NQS team at the site first, then proceed to the seeded teams), the next highest all-arounder with the next lowest-seeded team, etc." All individual competitors will compete and qualify for nationals out of the Friday round two sessions. Results will be combined over the two sessions to determine the top finisher not on a qualifying team in the all around and on each event.

NCAA Semifinals Qualification and Seeding

Teams with an NQS greater than 188.000 will qualify for the team semifinals. Session placement is based on final rankings following conference championship weekend: Teams ranked Nos. 1, 4, 5, and 8 are placed in one session, while teams ranked Nos. 2, 3, 6, and 7 are placed in the other. The session including the host institution, if applicable, is held second. If the host does not qualify a full team, the No. 1 team is assigned to the evening session. If fewer than eight teams meet the 188 NQS threshold to qualify, teams will be seeded based on their final ranking, with Nos. 1/4/5/7 competing in one session and Nos.

Tie-Breaking Procedures

Any ties in the all-around are broken by looking at the highest single event score, then the next highest, and so forth until the tie is broken. For individual event ties, all four judges’ scores will be counted and averaged. If a tie still exists, the head judge score will be the tiebreaker. Team ties during round three will be broken the same way as in rounds one and two. Team ties during the national semifinals will be broken the same way as in rounds one, two, and three.

Additional Considerations

Religious Exemptions: Any team requiring a religious exemption will be placed in a regional site not competing on the day that exemption is observed, either Saturday or Sunday. BYU would not be able to compete in sites following the Thursday/Friday/Sunday cadence since it observes Sabbath on Sundays.
Live Statistics/Webcasting: The NCAA encourages all hosting institutions to provide live statistics/webcasting capabilities through NCAA.com. A host planning to do either live stats or webcasting must show all rotations, not just those involving the host team.
Team Travel: Teams are allowed 15 athletes and five non-athletes to travel (to receive per diem reimbursements) and be on the competition floor. Programs that qualify one to three individuals are allowed two non-athletes, and teams with four to six individuals are allowed three non-athletes. A total of 24 individuals are allowed in the team corral at nationals.
Host Site Rotation: When possible, the host site rotates to a different region of the country each year.

Judges and Referee

For regionals, four judges will judge each event during the competition with the highest and lowest scores thrown out and the middle two averaged for the final score. For nationals, six judges will judge each event. The highest and lowest score will be dropped and the four scores in the middle will be averaged. The NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Committee will select all judges (26 judges, a meet referee, and an alternate). The NCAA national office will provide the list of judges assigned to the championships. The meet referee will be selected first and based on experience, recommendations from coaches and regional chairs, and approval by the committee. The referee can’t serve more than two consecutive years. The nationals meet referee will rotate regionals with each serving a two-year term.

All-American Honors and Awards

After the conclusion of the regular season, regular season All-Americans are determined using NQS rankings. The honor is determined by taking the top eight on each event and the all-around for the First Team and Nos. Starting in 2020, the WCGA awarded separate regular season All-American honors to DIII gymnasts. First-team honors are given to the top finisher, plus ties, for all four events plus the all around across the NCGA East, NCGA West, and Centenary. All-American status is determined by taking the top four, with ties, on each event and the all-around from each session at the NCAA national championships for the first team and Nos. Any gymnast who makes event finals at USAG nationals, including those who qualify but do not compete, are named First-Team All-Americans, as well as those finishing in the top eight in the all-around standings.

The Academic All-District team is selected by members of CoSIDA, the College Sports Information Directors of America. To be nominated, a student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) at their current institution. The Elite 90 award goes to the student-athlete who has the highest cumulative grade-point average of all student-athletes on all teams competing at the NCAA national championships.

These honors are given based on criteria determined by each conference. However, most follow the same general guidelines. In the SEC, for example, to earn All-SEC recognition, gymnasts must finish in the top two spots (including ties) per event in each SEC championship session.

The Honda Sports Award acknowledges athletic and academic achievement, as well as community involvement for the 12 different NCAA-sanctioned sports, including gymnastics. Each Honda Award winner is recognized as the top collegiate female athlete in her sport, and each of the 12 move on as nominees for the Honda Cup each year.

Often called the Heisman Trophy of women’s gymnastics, the AAI Award is given to an outstanding senior gymnast as nominated and voted for by the sport’s head coaches. After initial nominations are announced, the field is then narrowed to the top six where the award is presented at the NCAA national championships banquet.

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