Rk	Chg	Team	Avg	This Week
1	=	Oklahoma	198.045	198.375
2	=	Cal	197.700	197.950
3	+2	LSU	197.590	198.475
4	=	Utah	197.485	197.750
5	-2	Kentucky	197.480	197.600
6	+2	Florida	197.331	197.475
7	-1	Alabama	197.285	196.975
8	+3	UCLA	197.220	198.075
9	+1	Denver	197.215	198.000
10	+3	Michigan State	197.190	198.050
11	+2	Michigan	197.105	197.625
12	-3	Missouri	197.075	197.025
13	-6	Arkansas	197.025	196.200
14	+1	Auburn	196.950	197.425
15	-4	Ohio State	196.935	196.625
16	=	Minnesota	196.850	197.525
17	+1	Arizona	196.625	196.525
18	-2	Oregon State	196.565	196.100
19	+2	Georgia	196.510	197.300
20	+3	Arizona State	196.450	197.250
21	+1	Ball State	196.255	196.075
22	-3	Iowa State	196.215	195.550
23	-3	Clemson	196.169	195.600
24	+2	Nebraska	196.130	196.500
25	-1	Illinois	196.110	195.650

Biggest Movers (+)

#8 UCLA (+3) — UCLA said, “You know what’s fun? Competing floor at home meets” for the second straight week to break the 198 barrier and make another ranking jump, this time into the top 10 for a ranking more befitting this team’s actual competitiveness. UCLA has now logged a solid two of the six scores needed for NQS, the only issue being that neither of them are road scores, putting some significance on this week’s quick turnaround to compete at Oregon State on Friday night, the last meet for a bit with full Malabuyo access.

#10 Michigan State (+3) — The Clash of the Michigans provided a golden opportunity to get a wild score, and MSU best took advantage of that for 198.050, the second 198 in team history following their first venture to the land of the specials last March. Michigan State has a packed home-meet schedule to end the season (just two road meets left already), so having this road number now will prove very useful when we get to the final couple weeks, ensuring that a late-March visit to Texas Woman’s doesn’t necessarily have to be some 198.5.

#20 Arizona State (+3) — Arizona State certainly showed us the value of a loss in college gymnastics this week because, yes they invited #1 Oklahoma and #2 Cal to town and got kind of smushed if you care about results. But also, no one does, and ASU very much enjoyed the glowing-warming-glow of this meet for 197.250, a season high by more than a fall and a real ranking booster. As Tennyson said, “‘Tis better to have faced Oklahoma and lost, than never to have 197ed at all.”

Biggest Movers (-)

#12 Missouri (-3) — There was no dramatic disaster for Missouri this week, just a regular old 197.025. You mean you only got 49.500 on floor and only got one 9.975 on beam??? Ranking plummet for you!

#13 Arkansas (-6) — Arkansas experienced the most drooping in the rankings this week, traveling to LSU for a 196.200 while LSU was getting…a 206 I think. A counting fall on bars in the first rotation proved the culprit keeping Arkansas from another 197, and we can find a way to blame that on the broken vault, right?

#15 Ohio State (-4) — A wobbly beam rotation brought Ohio State to a season low 196.625 this week and a ranking drop, though I do like that Ohio State has stuck with Courtney McCann on beam (thus far) through consecutive falls following that first-meet 9.975. It’s a challenging lineup decision to balance the need to get scores right now with the knowledge that when you’re ultimately faced with trying to upset a top-8 famous team in a regional final, you won’t be able to play it safe and need a big ace in the hole to put up, exactly like McCann’s beam.

#22 Iowa State (-3) — Iowa State also suffered from the beamies this week, having to count a score in the 8s for a season-low 195.550 in losing to Boise State, a meet in which the teams were never more than .050 apart until beam happened for ISU in the final rotation.

#23 Clemson (-3) — Clemson experienced its first missed rotation of the season, nearly escaping a Brie Clark-less meet with a big score until—once again—beam happened, saddling Clemson with a 195.600, a first sub-196 result for the team.

Other Keepers

#1 Oklahoma (198.375) — Oklahoma put up its second 198.3 of the season over the weekend, extending the team’s first-place margin and keeping up the possibility of re-breaking last year’s NQS record of 198.355. This is Oklahoma’s first score of the season above that mark.

#3 LSU (198.475) — A program record for LSU probably seems like the kind of score you would keep, and it prospectively puts LSU on the second-best trajectory when it comes to NQS as the only team besides Oklahoma with two 198s on the slate. Like UCLA, LSU has two big home numbers but nothing usable from road meets yet, so there could be some significance to this weekend’s visit to Georgia. And yet, LSU’s other three road meets remaining are 1) at Florida, 2) the “road” meet in Baton Rouge, and 3) SECs in New Orleans. You would be surprised if those aren’t all 198s.

#9 Denver (198.000) — Denver did some extreme twinning with Michigan State this weekend, competing at the exact same time on Sunday and both getting their second 198s in program history, after they also both got their first 198s in program history on the same day—March 5, 2023. These two, they are linked in the stars. Four of the six Denver bars routines got a 10 from one judge for a 49.750, which exploded Denver’s previous program bars record by more than a tenth.

#14 Auburn (197.425) — Auburn had been at risk of falling off the pace this season, getting a lot of fine scores but nothing of a seeded-at-regionals level that would be in the top 16 by the end. This weeks’ 197.425 was much stronger, featuring season highs on beam and floor and the debut of Olivia Greaves on bars for 9.875.

#16 Minnesota (197.525) — Minnesota visited Penn State on Saturday for a “But Some For Us Too” competition in which both teams obliterated their previous season highs with scores over 197. Minnesota’s 197.525 is the team’s best road score of the post-Loper/Ramler age.

#19 Georgia (197.300) — Georgia kind of almost beat Florida on Friday, which would have been a thing. Though for Georgia, a 197.300 remains a thing. Qualitatively, having Naya Howard return to the bars lineup and having Holly Snyder also able to do bars is starting to make these lineups look a little heartier and closer to what this roster actually should be able to produce.

Other Drops

#6 Florida (197.475) — It was another season high for Florida and a fine score—maintaining a consistency that saw the Gators gain two spots in the rankings over teams with misses—but it also ranks just 16th in the NCAA among season highs, and LSU scored an entire point higher than that this week. 

#7 Alabama (196.975) — Alabama went sub-197 for the first time this season in losing at home to Kentucky, stuck with counting a bunch of half-misses and a surprising Luisa Blanco beam grab that still got a Perfect Grab 9.700 from one judge.

#18 Oregon State (196.100) — Oregon State will want to drop this 196.100 from Friday night’s visit to Utah, a performance that was on track to score 197 save for a counting floor fall. It’s the second time this season that Oregon State has counted a fall on floor, putting the team in a surprising 44th place on that event. Go back a couple years and tell yourself that bars is by far Oregon State’s best-ranked event.