Any scores in BOLD can no longer be dropped.

Michigan had a mixed bag of a two-meet journey over the last couple days, starting with a non-counting 197.100 at Big Fives but followed by a 198.275 at Nebraska yesterday that lifted Michigan from 4th back up to 2nd in the in-progress rankings. Competing at home against Oklahoma on Monday, Michigan will not be able to drop that road 197.400 until the following week—and will be somewhat vulnerable to Florida since Florida has a higher maximum NQS after this week (198.050 to Michigan’s 198.015) if they both do season highs.

Welcome to the world, where Florida went 198.150 on senior night and it was the worst score in the top 4. Try more harder? Florida remains #2 in the official week 8 rankings because Michigan hadn’t competed yet when they came out but is actually in 3rd right now. That could change again on Friday, when Florida will have a good chance to retake #2 at Oklahoma given the opportunity to drop that road 197.325. A 197.875 would be enough to move ahead of Michigan for now, and 198.200 would guarantee staying ahead of Michigan even after Michigan faces Oklahoma next Monday.  

Utah went 198.550 on Friday for one of the highest scores in team history (198.600 is the record) to reinforce its status in the top 4. At this point, Utah will expect another 198 at senior night on Friday, but since it’s a home meet, those road scores will have to wait a bit to be improved upon. Increasing those will determine whether Utah has a shot at the top 3 by the end of the season. Utah does have a theoretical chance to catch Florida this weekend, but even with a Utah program record, it would also require Florida going sub 197.7 against Oklahoma, which at this point is basically an implosion, right? 

Alabama moved ahead of Auburn and into the top 8 this week with the aforementioned epic fantasy saga against LSU and will be excited about the possibility of dropping that remaining 196.975 and moving up even further. A 197.525 this week against Missouri would be enough to guarantee passing Cal and getting into the top 7. 

Like Cal, Auburn experienced the joys of going 197.550 and having that be…I guess bad now?…as they were dropped out of the top 8 by LSU and Alabama and now have an uphill climb to get out of that 1-8-9 regional assignment. Auburn does have an outside shot to move up this week, but it would require Cal or Alabama not improving on their droppable scores much at all.

A 197.275 at Iowa State over the weekend helped Denver retain its spot in the top 10 this week, though it’s going to be a battle to hang onto that from here on out because #11 Oregon State, #12 Kentucky, and #13 Michigan State all have higher potential NQSs after this weekend. As a regional host, Denver will be a dangerous postseason prospect that other teams don’t want to draw, but Denver would also really prefer to stay in the 9-12 seeding zone rather than the 13-16 seeding zone so that they only have to upset one better-ranked team, not two.

Oregon State went 198 for the very first time on Friday, which gives the team the inside track to move into the top 10 this coming weekend with the highest maximum NQS of the teams ranked 10+. It would take 197.850 to guarantee, which is no slouch of a score but would now be considered a possibility after last week.

Kentucky is making a late push and should be considered dangerous since those bold keeper scores are actually better than what #9 Auburn has in bold right now. Competing at home on Friday (against Auburn), Kentucky won’t be able to get rid of that last road 196 just yet, but will have a chance to set itself up to make a last-minute run at a spot in the SEC evening session once that 196 can go the following weekend. Otherwise, another 197.825 this weekend would definitely put Kentucky ahead of Denver.

Michigan State made a move with two 197s over the last several days and will be a dangerous prospect to move up again with another two meet weekend coming up, as long as the mid-197s continue to roll in. An NQS solidly into the 197.3s after this weekend is a very believable prospect with hit meets.

A program record score of 197.850 came just at the right time for Missouri to stay among the seeded teams (top 16) for another week. Because if you’re not setting a program record every week at this point, you’re in danger of falling. Missouri has a maximum NQS of 197.140 after this weekend, which is higher than that of Arizona State and Arkansas, so Missouri is in control of its own top-16 fate for now.

Arizona State has been the sleeper agent, suddenly moving into the top 16 with big 197s over the last couple meets. With another 197.375 this weekend in its home finale, ASU would guarantee staying in the top 16 for another week.

Ohio State went 196.750 over the weekend at Big Fives and dropped 3 spots in the rankings because that’s no longer the kind of score that gets you seeded at regionals. Ohio State does have two meets this weekend and a chance to get rid of one of those 196.7s (but not two, since both meets are at home) as it’s looking increasingly like—for the first time—it will take an NQS into the 197s to get a regionals seeding. 

It was another missed opportunity week for Arkansas, with a counting fall the culprit this time that kept the team from another 197.4. With three meets left, the opportunity to get rid of those 196s and snare a spot in the top 16 is still alive, but pretty much all margin for error has now been exhausted. Because Ohio State competes twice this weekend, we won’t know what it will take to be in the top 16 by Monday, but a 197.275 on Friday would ensure Arkansas moves into the top 16 at least for the moment.

A 196.075 at Auburn with a counting beam miss saddled Georgia with a non-counting score and a loss of 4 ranking spots this week. Now, Georgia goes home with a chance to drop a low 196 and the possibility of getting back into the seeded spots, but with a maximum NQS this week lower than any other team in the top 18, it’s going to be up to those other teams’ performances.

Southern Utah had a similar experience to Georgia with a beam-trastrophe for a non-counting result at this week’s meet. The good news for SUU is a two-meet weekend that provides a couple chances to get rid of low 196s and means that the top 16 is still a possibility if both meets are great results.

Iowa hit a season high at Big Fives to move back into the top 20, and while there’s a chance to catch Georgia and Southern Utah this week to move up further, Iowa has a maximum NQS of 196.750 after this weekend so wouldn’t be able to go higher than 18th or into the seeded spots—and also could be caught by Stanford. 

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.855

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.750

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.710

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.625

Maximum NQS after Thursday’s meet: 196.595

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.380

Maximum NQS after Thursday’s meet: 196.415

Something to keep an eye on for Maryland, NC State, and Towson (as well as North Carolina ranked a little bit lower) is that all of these teams would be geographically placed in the Pittsburgh regional, which is currently looking like the most crowded region and therefore most likely to have a team that’s ranked high enough to avoid the play-ins nonetheless getting stuffed into one because of where they got placed geographically. Meaning: they’re in a sub-fight with each other not to be one of the lowest two teams in the Pitt regional.

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.325

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.410

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.105

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.225

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.305

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.080

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.225

Maximum NQS after Wednesday’s meet: 196.180

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.165

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.035

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 196.090

George Washington has a max NQS that could get into the top 36 this week, but no other team ranked below GW does. Keep an eye on that because if this margin continues to grow, we could quickly get into a 38-team race for 36 spots. The remaining teams need to start season-highing all over the place.  

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 195.820

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 195.790

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 195.725

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 195.625

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 195.740

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 195.835

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 195.795

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 195.785

Maximum NQS after this weekend: 195.495