The NCAA regular season has reached its halfway point, which means it’s time to start watching scores a little closer and time to take this season’s first deep look at the RQS picture. (What’s RQS?)

Who’s already fine? Who desperately needs what road scores and when? Let’s get into it.

NOTE: Teams will still be ranked by season average until the rankings of February 26, when RQS officially takes over. So, teams without an RQS right now still have two more weeks to record the necessary scores.

For reference, these are the RQSs required last season for a series of benchmarks if you’re feverishly watching what a certain team might need:

Advance to regionals – 195.420 RQS
Seeded #3 at regionals – 196.380 RQS
Seeded #2 at regionals – 196.845 RQS
Seeded #1 at regionals – 197.355 RQS

As a whole, scores are a little higher this year than they were at the same point last season (ACT SURPRISED), so keep that in mind as well.

Scores in bold will be part of the six scores used for final RQS and can no longer be removed because the team in question has fewer than six meets remaining.

Oklahoma started its season later this year and therefore doesn’t have enough scores for an RQS yet. But, as is typical, the Sooners already have five usable scores and are on track to finish the regular season at #1. Last season, Oklahoma made history by being the second team ever to finish the season with an RQS in the 198s. That all-time record of 198.055 (UCLA 2004) seems within reach again, but the Sooners will need to erase those 197.5s over the next seven meets to get there.

We’re accustomed to watching the scores a little bit closer for UCLA as the Bruins typically have one bad road score hanging around for way too long, but not this year. UCLA just needs to drop that 196.250 and replace it with another solid 197 to ensure a comfortable spot in the rankings. Staying at #2 and holding off the likes of LSU, Florida, and Utah, however, will likely require bumping up those 197.2s as well.

The Utes have a little more work left to do. The top three scores here are totally usable, but they’ll want three more scores of an equivalent level to clinch a solid ranking. (This is all relative—Utah is going to be fine for an acceptable regionals seeding regardless of what happens here on out, but they’d like the stay right with the other members of the top 5.) Utah does have a week off at the beginning of March, which means there are only five meets remaining to get those three more mid-197s. Continue reading RQS Outlook →

1. Oklahoma Sooners

Average: 197.880
Previous ranking: 1

Oklahoma once again widens its lead over the rest of the country with a third-straight score of 198. The Sooners own three of the four 198s recorded so far this season and are setting up for yet another assault on the RQS record after coming so close last season. This week’s 198.150 was not Oklahoma’s strongest performance of the season despite the giant score, with two OOBs on floor and no sticks on vault, but even with those errors on floor, Oklahoma is starting to show the skeleton of what would work as competitive floor six as long as Natalie Brown is able to return to the lineup, floor having been the one question mark so far this year.

2. UCLA Bruins

Average: 197.346
Previous ranking: 4

UCLA makes the big leap from 4th to 2nd this week after a road 197.750 in a victory over Cal. That’s the highest road score by a non-Oklahoma team so far this season, one achieved without full-strength lineups (because these scores, you guys), which means it may be time to start discussing UCLA not simply as a Super Six team but as a possible title contender. The jump between categories has been made largely because of a reinvented floor lineup that’s far superior to last season’s group, though the perennial vault concern has not disappeared. Vault comparison will be a significant feature of next week’s clash against Utah.

3. Utah Utes

Average: 197.292
Previous ranking: 2

The Utes drop behind UCLA this week after a fine-but-unremarkable 197.075 at home. It’s a score the team won’t expect to keep around for the RQS picture in a performance marked by counting a 9.650 on floor—an event where Utah typically would have expected to run up the total (of note, Soloski sat for this meet). Utah enters the testing portion of its season schedule now with four away meets in its remaining five, which theoretically will make it more challenging to rack up big scores. Then again, no one expects next Sunday’s meet at UCLA to be scored conservatively.

4. LSU Tigers

Average: 197.267
Previous ranking: 3

LSU drops another spot this week amidst the same old story we’ve been telling for at least the last month: the potential for a huge performance was marred by one mistake, keeping the Tigers in the lower end of the 197s. This time, it was a counting fall on beam after misses from both Campbell and Edney. LSU is usually able to mix-and-match with that third spot in the beam lineup, and do so comfortably, but with the hitting struggles this year (falls in 4 of 6 meets), I wonder if the coaches will change course and opt for stability. It’s inevitable that LSU will break out for a big total soon (this weekend’s two meets provide some juicy options), but it has been six weeks now and we haven’t seen this team really hit yet.

Continue reading Week 6 Rankings →