Soon, I’ll post the full schedule for all the teams and all the meets, but we’re still waiting on a few too many schools to get it together, so I’m waiting until the schedule is a little more complete to put up the whole thing.
So for the moment, it’s highlight time—a brief rundown of the biggest meets of the season and when they’re happening.
Some impressions:
- Neutral location quad meets are all the rage. Anyone who’s anyone has at least one (and probably seven) obscurely named large-group meets on the schedule this year. The season-opening Critique Classic is a highly appropriate way to begin the season, helping everyone remember how good we are at critiquing things and what important work it is that truly needs to be commemorated with its own meet. #TheRealHeroes
- The “This Was Where Ohashi’s Viral Routine Happened” Challenge has expanded to two sessions this year, and the Metroplex field gives it a good argument for the best meet of the year.
- Aside from those group meets, lots of teams are skipping out on the first weekend of the year and waiting until the 10th-12th to start competing, which is fairly normal. The closer the first weekend of the season moves to New Year’s, the fewer teams opt to compete.
- Nebraska has two separate ESPN2 meets on Thursdays this year—January 16 against Penn State and January 30 against Michigan. Go ahead on Nebraska? The UCLA/Utah meet on February 23 will also be an ESPN2 joint.
| WEEK 1 |
| Friday, January 3 |
| 7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – Critique Classic (Georgia, Oregon State, Iowa, Bridgeport) |
| Saturday, January 4 |
| 4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT – Collegiate Challenge Session 1 (Denver, Auburn, Penn State, Arizona State) |
| 9:30pm ET/6:30pm PT – Collegiate Challenge Session 2 (Oklahoma, UCLA, Cal, Stanford) |
| WEEK 2 |
| Friday, January 10 |
| 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT – LSU @ Georgia |
| 9:00pm ET/6:00pm PT – Alabama @ Auburn |
| Saturday, January 11 |
| 9:00pm ET/6:00pm PT – Best of Utah (Utah, Southern Utah, BYU, Utah State) @ West Valley City, UT |
| Sunday, January 12 |
| 4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT – Minnesota @ Denver |
| 5:00pm ET/2:00pm PT – NorCal Classic (Cal, Stanford, San Jose State, Sacramento State @ UC Davis) |
| WEEK 3 |
| Thursday, January 16 |
| 7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – Penn State @ Nebraska |
| Friday, January 17 |
| 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT – Auburn @ LSU |
| 9:00pm ET/6:00pm PT – Oklahoma @ Alabama |
| Sunday, January 19 |
| 7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – Stanford @ Cal |
| WEEK 4 |
| Friday, January 24 |
| 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT – LSU @ Florida |
| Saturday, January 25 |
| 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – Metroplex Challenge (Oklahoma, Denver, Georgia, Alabama) |
| WEEK 5 |
| Thursday, January 30 |
| 7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – Michigan @ Nebraska |
| Friday, January 31 |
| 7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – Florida @ Kentucky |
| 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT – Alabama @ LSU |
| WEEK 6 |
| Friday, February 7 |
| 7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – Denver, Iowa State @ Florida |
| Saturday, February 8 |
| 2:30pm ET/11:30am PT – LSU, Arizona State @ Oregon State |
| 3:30pm ET/12:30pm PT – Utah @ Cal |
| WEEK 7 |
| Friday, February 14 |
| 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – GQ Invite (LSU, Missouri, Iowa St, Lindenwood) |
| 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT – Florida @ Auburn |
| Saturday, February 15 |
| 3:00pm ET/12:00pm PT – Oregon State @ Utah |
| Sunday, February 16 |
| 3:30pm ET/12:30pm PT – Kentucky @ LSU |
| 6:00pm ET/3:00pm PT – Cal @ Stanford |
| 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT – Nebraska @ Minnesota |
| WEEK 8 |
| Friday, February 21 |
| 6:00pm ET/3:00pm PT – Alabama @ Florida |
| 7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – Big Five (Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio State, Rutgers) |
| 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – Oklahoma v. Stanford @ Oklahoma City, OK |
| Saturday, February 22 |
| 4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT – Oregon State @ Cal |
| 7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – Big Five (Michigan, Minnesota, Penn State, Maryland, Michigan State) |
| Sunday, February 23 |
| 6:00pm ET/3:00pm PT – Utah @ UCLA |
| WEEK 9 |
| Friday, February 28 |
| 7:00pm ET/4:00pm PT – Florida @ Georgia |
| 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT – Kentucky @ Alabama |
| Saturday, February 29 |
| 12:30pm ET/9:30am PT – Denver @ Oklahoma |
| 4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT – UCLA @ Oregon State |
| Sunday, March 1 |
| WEEK 10 |
| Friday, March 6 |
| 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT – Michigan @ Oklahoma |
| Saturday, March 7 |
| 8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT – Georgia @ Alabama |
| Sunday, March 8 |
| 4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT – Cal @ UCLA |
| WEEK 11 |
| Friday, March 13 |
| 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – Alabama v. Auburn @ Brimingham, AL |
| Saturday, March 14 |
| 3:30pm ET/12:30pm PT – Oklahoma @ Minnesota |
| 8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – Denver @ Nebraska |
| WEEK 12 |
| Saturday, March 21 |
| TBD – Big Ten Championship (Columbus, OH) |
| TBD – Pac-12 Championship (West Valley City, UT) |
| TBD – SEC Championship (Duluth, GA) |
| 7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Big 12 Championship (Morgantown, WV) |
| MEET WEEK 14 – March 30-April 5 |
| Thursday, April 2 |
| TBD – Penn State Regional Play-in |
| TBD – Oklahoma Regional Play-in |
| TBD – Denver Regional Play-in |
| TBD – UCLA Regional Play-in |
| Friday, April 3 |
| TBD – Penn State Regional Semifinal #1 |
| TBD – Oklahoma Regional Semifinal #1 |
| TBD – Denver Regional Semifinal #1 |
| TBD – UCLA Regional Semifinal #1 |
| TBD – Penn State Regional Semifinal #2 |
| TBD – Oklahoma Regional Semifinal #2 |
| TBD – Denver Regional Semifinal #2 |
| TBD – UCLA Regional Semifinal #2 |
| Saturday, April 4 |
| TBD – Penn State Regional Final |
| TBD – Oklahoma Regional Final |
| TBD – Denver Regional Final |
| TBD – UCLA Regional Final |
| MEET WEEK 15 – April 6-April 12 |
| Friday, April 10 |
| TBD – USAG Championship Semifinal 1 |
| TBD – USAG Championship Semifinal 2 |
| Saturday, April 11 |
| TBD – USAG Championship Team Final |
| Sunday, April 12 |
| TBD – USAG Championship Event Finals |
| MEET WEEK 15 – April 13-April 19 |
| Friday, April 17 |
| TBD – National Semifinal #1 |
| TBD – National Semifinal #2 |
| Saturday, April 18 |
| TBD – National Championship |
Why are Stanford and Cal facing off four times this season? Did their travel budget get cut down significantly? Do they have a life and death rivalry we don’t know about?
And that’s not counting Pac-12 Championships or post-season draws.
Stanford and Cal do have a pretty intense rivalry in all sports.
It makes sense to me as a strategy because they’re close together, travel is cheap, and fans can pretty easily get between the two. Basically you get a lot of the benefits of a home meet but it’s a meet you can count as away for NQS.
UNC and NC State compete against each other a lot and I assume it’s a similar strategy.
Neither team has ever had a huge travel budget (and the Pac-12 is big enough that they don’t really need one). Looks like this year they both had holes in their schedules that they filled with an extra dual meet. (MRGC teams do that with each other pretty often too.) Then they had the season opener with all the NorCal teams, which has been an annual tradition for a while, and then they both wound up at UCLA’s fake road meet because if you’ve got one of those neutral-site quads in your state, you might as well go.
How is it decided who goes to the neutral-site quads? Is one school nominally the host and then they determine the other teams? Or is there a third party that dictates who’s invited? I assume that these meets are generally sought after and it’s not an “anyone who’s interested can compete” situation.
Scoring? Is there a newb friendly scoring tutorial somewhere for NCAA and Elite?