After 13 weeks of competition, 62 Division I women’s gymnastics teams have been whittled down to just eight.
They are, listed alphabetically:
- Alabama
- Florida
- LSU
- Michigan State
- Missouri
- Oklahoma
- UCLA
- Utah
One of those eight teams will end up the 2025 national champions. The rest will have to wait another year in hopes of hoisting the coveted trophy.
Who will win the title this year? Is there a clear favorite? Who are the contenders and pretenders? How does Utah compare to the other seven teams? Is this the year the Red Rocks finally break through and win their 10th NCAA national championship (11th national title all-time)?
Let’s break down the field.
The favorite(s)
Any discussion about the remaining gymnastics teams should start with the No. 1-ranked LSU Tigers, who just so happen to be the reigning national champions. It should also quickly include the No. 2-ranked Oklahoma Sooners — the most recent dynasty in the sport.
LSU Tigers
- Seed — No. 1
- Regular season NQS — 198.115
- Season-high score — 198.575
- Event rankings — balance beam (No. 5); floor exercise (No. 3); uneven bars (No. 2); vault (No. 1)
- 2025 All-Americans — Haleigh Bryant, Kailin Chio, Amari Drayton, Aleah Finnegan and Konnor McClain
- Regionals scores — semifinals (198.100); final (198.050)
Oklahoma Sooners
- Seed — No. 2
- Regular season NQS — 198.040
- Season-high score — 198.475
- Event rankings — balance beam (No. 1); floor exercise (No. 1); uneven bars (No. 1); vault (No. 3)
- 2025 All-Americans — Jordan Bowers, Audrey Davis, Lily Pederson, Faith Torrez and Keira Wells
- Regionals scores — semifinals (198.025); final (198.450)
The Tigers should be considered the prohibitive favorites entering nationals.
LSU has scored a 198 or better in six straight meets, joining Oklahoma as the only programs to ever pull that off. The Tigers have beaten six of the seven other teams that qualified for nationals head-to-head this season and the only team they didn’t beat this season (UCLA) they didn’t face.
LSU has two top-10 all-around gymnasts (Chio and Finnegan) and the arguably the best gymnast on the team (Bryant) isn’t one of them.
The Tigers are ranked in the top five on every event and have proven capable of scoring a 49.6 on all four events.
But LSU isn’t infallible.
The Tigers lost to Arkansas and Oklahoma during the regular season (they avenged their loss to the Sooners in two other regular-season meetings). LSU also wasn’t nearly as good outside of Louisiana during the season, with an average score of 197.91 in its home state and a 197.525 outside of the state.
But back-to-back 198s at regionals, plus a strong performance at the SEC championships assuages some of those concerns.
LSU is the national title favorite at this point. Maybe not the runaway favorite but the expected winner.
Oklahoma, though, has been the best program in the sport for a decade now, with five national championships since 2016. And after being upset/falling apart in the national semifinals a year ago, the thought all season has been that the Sooners are on a revenge tour.
In a lot of ways, Oklahoma still looks like the best team in the country. No team has better overall event rankings; OU’s scores at regionals were second-to-none; no team has a better pair of all-around gymnasts (Bowers and Torrez tied for No. 2 in the country).
Moreover, the Sooners have lost only twice this season, both times to the same team — LSU. And Oklahoma has also beaten the Tigers this season.
Another national title for Oklahoma wouldn’t be a surprise.
The Sooners have some flaws though. OU has relied heavily on all-around gymnasts all season and fatigue/wear and tear is a real worry. The Sooners have been genuinely challenged on multiple occasions this season beyond just LSU, too.
Vault, traditionally a dominant event for Oklahoma, hasn’t been nearly as great of an event either — by Sooner standards.
Oklahoma could well end up winning the national title in two weeks, but the Sooners don’t enter nationals the presumptive favorite.
If things break right ...
Four additional teams have legitimate arguments that they can win the national title this year, without too much help from other teams either. But things have to break right for them, meaning they have to compete to the best of their ability — be that proven or teased this season.
Florida
- Seed — No. 3
- Regular season NQS — 197.935
- Season-high score — 198.625
- Event rankings — balance beam (No. 2); floor exercise (No. 5); uneven bars (No. 3); vault (No. 2).
- 2025 All-Americans — Selena Harris-Miranda and Leanne Wong
- Regionals scores — semifinals (198.225); final (197.700)
Michigan State
- Seed — No. 8
- Regular season NQS — 197.360
- Season-high score — 198.150
- Event rankings — balance beam (No. 13); floor exercise (No. 13); uneven bars (No. 7); vault (No. 4).
- 2025 All-Americans — Sage Kellerman, Nikki Smith and Olivia Zsarmani
- Regionals scores — semifinals (197.625); final (198.000)
UCLA
- Seed – No. 5
- Regular season NQS — 197.680
- Season-high score — 198.450
- Event rankings — balance beam (No. 4); floor exercise (No. 1); uneven bars (No. 8); vault (No. 7)
- 2025 All-Americans — Ciena Alipio, Chae Campbell, Jordan Chiles, Frida Esparza, Emma Malabuyo and Brooklyn Moors
- Regionals scores — semifinals (197.750); final (197.625)
Utah
- Seed – No. 4
- Regular season NQS — 197.780
- Season-high score — 198.100
- Event rankings — balance beam (No. 3); floor exercise (No. 6); uneven bars (No. 4); vault (No. 6)
- 2025 All-Americans — Grace McCallum, Avery Neff, Makenna Smith and Camie Winger
- Regionals scores — Semifinals (197.650); Final (197.825)
Pick your poison with any of these teams.
All have, at times, proven themselves elite. At other times, though, each has proven very vulnerable.
Take Florida.
The Gators are arguably the most talented team in the country, yet only had two All-Americans. The Gators rank in the top five on every event, yet they haven’t been able to beat either LSU or Oklahoma in multiple meetings. Florida boasts two of the five best all-around gymnasts in the country and yet the Gators had the lowest score in a regional final of any regional champion.
The Gators, when at their best, are as good as any team in the country. They have the single highest meet score of any team this season. The issue has been Florida hasn’t been nearly as consistent as you’d expect for a national title contender.
The same holds true, if slightly less so, for Utah. The Red Rocks rank in the top six in the country on every event and have scored a 198 or better in multiple meets. Talent isn’t an issue, there is plenty of it in Salt Lake City.
Yet, the Red Rocks struggled in both their regional semifinal and final to compete at or near what they are capable of. Utah also doesn’t have anywhere close to the high scores of other contenders away from the state of Utah. The road has not been kind to the Red Rocks score-wise.
Utah’s biggest issue this season? Competing at its best on all four events in the same competition. The Red Rocks have scored a 49.6 or better on three of the four events (vault the only outlier) this year, but never in the same meet. Utah has generally been great on one or two events per meet and underachieved on the others. In a little bit of a deeper dive, Utah has had six gymnasts stick a 10.0-valued vault this season, but hasn’t had more than two gymnasts score a 9.9-plus in the same meet.
UCLA has been even more volatile. When on, the Bruins have taken on and defeated notable teams, like Michigan State multiple times (more on the Spartans in a bit).
UCLA has as many All-Americans as any team in the country, three of whom are Olympians. That hasn’t prevented the Bruins from having some serious struggles, though. Of the top six ranked teams in the country entering the postseason, UCLA had the worst performance in a regional final.
UCLA, in theory, should excel on bars yet that is the team’s worst event, and vault remains an ever-present issue.
Of the four teams in this group, Michigan State might be the only one trending in the right direction. The Spartans were clearly the worst team in this tier during the regular season, but back-to-back strong performances at regionals appears to have altered the team’s trajectory. Though that could be recency basis factoring in.
In the final of the State College (Penn State) Regional, Michigan State gave LSU all it could handle then some, falling short of an upset of the No. 1 Tigers by only half a tenth of a point (five hundredths of a point).
The Spartans have been one of the country’s best teams on vault — arguably the most difficult event in the sport and the most volatile for sure — which makes them a threat to any team. But MSU doesn’t compare favorably with other national title contenders on floor and beam.
Did Michigan State reach its peak at regionals or do the Spartans have more to give? Can Florida actually perform at its best when it goes against LSU and Oklahoma? Can UCLA channel its best version of itself in Fort Worth? Will Utah figure out how to compete a complete meet?
If any of those questions are answered in the favor of those respective teams, they can win the national title. Even without significant help from LSU and Oklahoma. If not though, the trip to Fort Worth could be a disappointing one.
It’s been a great year but...
Missouri
- Seed — No. 7
- Regular season NQS — 197.510
- Season-high score — 198.100
- Event rankings — balance beam (No. 11); floor exercise (No. 4); uneven bars (No. 4); vault (No. 11)
- 2025 All-Americans — Amari Celestine, Kennedy Griffin, Helen Hu, Jocelyn Moore and Mara Titarsolej
- Regionals scores — Semifinals (197.650); Final (197.425)
Alabama
- Seed — No. 11
- Regular season NQS — 197.205
- Season-high score — 197.675
- Event rankings — balance beam (No. 17); floor exercise (No. 8); uneven bars (No. 12); vault (No. 7)
- 2025 All-Americans — Gabby Gladieux and Lilly Hudson
- Regionals scores — Semifinals (197.275); Final (197.675)
Missouri and Alabama probably don’t belong in the same tier. There is a real argument that Missouri should be in a grouping with Michigan State and maybe even UCLA.
The Tigers had a great year in the SEC, albeit not at the same level as LSU, Oklahoma and Florida, but the Tigers are, barring complete disaster from multiple teams, not a genuine threat to win the national championship.
Missouri has been competitive against great teams this season, but the Tigers are still 0-6 against top-flight competition. The Tigers rank outside of the top 10 on multiple events, including beam (despite the brilliance of Helen Hu).
A return to nationals is a major accomplishment for Missouri, which has established itself as a top-10 program annually. But the Tigers haven’t made the leap to title contention just yet. Top 10 is one thing, national title contender is something else altogether.
As for Alabama, the Crimson Tide upset No. 6 Cal to make it to nationals behind a season-best score of 197.675. It was the upset of the postseason, even with Alabama hosting regionals.
In every facet of the sport, though, Alabama is not on the same level as the rest of the teams that are headed to nationals. The Crimson Tide were in a battle at the bottom of the SEC for much of the season and there is no reason to expect them to knock off any of the other seven teams that made it to Fort Worth.