A return to slightly more realistic scores at the 2025 NCAA season begins — Listen to BJ Das as she choreographs UCLA floor routines

Sending love to anyone reading this who is affected by the wildfires in southern California right now.

NCAA season is underway and for the first time in nearly four years, not a single perfect 10 was awarded during the first week. (Also, that link is from Forbes. We’re big time now!)

So it seems like that new judging stuff might actually be working? (Here’s a snappier version.) It’s hard to tell sometimes, given that several big meets last weekend were neither broadcast nor live streamed, and thus impossible to watch. Looking at you, American Gold. And with two returning American Olympic gold medalists and numerous other Olympians back for their NCAA seasons, there’s even less of an excuse. That same meet featured Wilberforce’s gymnastics debut, and without that team providing their own livestream, we wouldn’t have seen it at all. 

But overall, to me, it did look like athletes in last week’s meets were being held to a higher standard than existed in recent seasons. I noticed this in particular during last Friday’s LSU vs. Iowa State meet. I was expecting LSU, as the returning national champion at home against a traditionally weaker, out-of-conference opponent, to walk away with a huge score. And the Tigers did crack 197, but they were one of only two teams (the other being, of course, Oklahoma) to do so last week. Where last year, it seemed like gymnasts had to make major errors noticeable to Muggles to see anything below a 9.9, I saw far more 9.85s for routines that looked decent but that had compositional errors or were plagued by wobbles. I also saw far less leotard or name bias. This is, of course, as it always should have been, but any fan of the sport knows that’s not the case, and last year in particular was full of judging inflation. 

And the early meets of the season should start off slow, score-wise. We don’t want all the 10s right away; that indicates teams don’t have work to do, and all of them do. I’m eager to see how that work pays off this season. 

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Other gym news

There’s a lot to love over at College Gym News right now and you should go immerse yourself in it. But I will highlight here the return of the leotard rankings.

Similarly, Spencer Barnes at the Balance Beam Situation is back and giving us what we’re all here for: The GIFs. And our schedule and links! 

GymCastic interviewed Luisa Blanco this week:

Ana Barbosu, the Romanian gymnast who received the Olympic bronze on floor after initially winning it, then having it challenged by Jordan Chiles’ coaches, and ultimately having it returned to her following a Court of Arbitration of Sport case, announced a commitment to Stanford and will debut this season. 

Jordyn Wieber, appearing on the reality show Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, airing now on Fox, had a panic attack during a challenge and then spoke candidly about the abuse she suffered as a gymnast. People wrote a piece about what happened. 

Anna Li and Jiani Wu were suspended from coaching for nine months and one year, respectively, for abusing gymnasts at Legacy Gymnastics. The case has dragged out over six years, angering the athletes and families involved in the SafeSport case against the former national team gymnast and her mother. 

Five at the IX: BJ Das, Mic’d Up

Enjoy this video from UCLA of BJ Das, the gymnastics team choreographer, as she works on some of the team’s soon-to-be-famous floor routines.