And now, we turn our attention to college gym — Jordan Chiles delivers the keynote speech for the Power Women Summit

Tis that time of year when feast turns to famine as far as gymnastics is concerned. In an Olympic year like this one, the dearth of news can seem particularly cruel to fans. We had the world’s attention, and now we have nothing. 

And so, with the door on the elite season slammed and locked, we look to NCAA to revive us from our Thanksgiving food comas. 

We haven’t seen the official NCAA coaches’ poll yet, but over at College Gym News, they conducted their own among staff. 

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, but maybe a bit more surprisingly than in previous years given their early demise at nationals this year, Oklahoma came out on top. LSU, this year’s national champions, was second, with Florida and Utah in third and fourth, respectively. Nothing too surprising there. But the battle between Oklahoma and LSU really will define this season, in my opinion — Oklahoma returning with a vengeance, and LSU fighting to hold onto that title another year. 

UCLA in seventh position got my attention. That speaks highly of their incoming class, as the Bruins floundered last season. Sometimes I do think people’s expectations of the UCLA team are based more on their excitement to see them in action rather than their actual results, but this is a team that always has preseason potential in spades regardless of how it actually plays out once the season takes off. Still, UCLA is bringing in a 2025 class that could finally up their vault game and get them back into position for the postseason, and the 2026 class is strong as well. Here’s hoping we’re on the upswing there. 

It’s exciting to see Missouri and Kentucky in eighth and ninth, respectively, as those two teams have risen from the lower ranks of the SEC in recent years to become perennial threats for nationals. They get strong recruits (and transfers, particularly Missouri) and are on the up and up. Kentucky must overcome that tough loss in regionals last year to hold onto their spot, though, while Missouri, I would say, will continue to rise. 

And Georgia is higher up than I would have thought given their performances over the last several years — all credit must go to the coaching change over there, and let’s hope they can live up to the No. 14 ranking. 

Michigan, conversely, is No. 11 here, quite a downswing from being national champions in 2021. They have not been able to replicate that year’s success, but hoping this year sees them stop the slide. 

It’s going to be an interesting season. 

Other gym news

The Gymternet has a host of results: Top 12 Series 1, South American Junior Championships, the Japanese team and event championships, the Olympic Hopes Cup. 

College Gym News has its first NCAA liveblog, for Clemson’s Gymnastics 102, a Day in the Life piece on transferring in college gymnastics, and the dos and don’ts of fantasy gymnastics.

Rebeca Andrade was named Woman of the Year by GQ Brazil. 

USA Gymnastics released the list of gymnasts attending the December national team camp. 

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Five at the IX: Jordan Chiles at the Power Women Summit

Jordan Chiles delivered the keynote speech of TheWrap.com’s Power Women Summit this week.