Week 3 Top 25 and Ranking Notes

Change indicates change from last week’s official Week 2 rankings, released on Monday mornings.

Biggest Movers (+)

#3 LSU (+5) — LSU made a major jump in week 3 by staying on beam the whole entire time and therefore scoring 198. Through the first two meets, LSU’s start could have been considered slow, but this is now the earliest point in a season this team has ever broken the 198 barrier, so it’s not looking particularly slow anymore. The lineup changes were kind of a roller coaster in this one with Finnegan limited to only beam (wrist) but also McClain appearing on three events at the same time and Brock making her season debut on vault—a struggle this time, but you want her form in that lineup as we go. 

#10 Michigan (+4) — Michigan continued climbing out of the first-meet hole this week with another 197 to sneak back into the top 10. This 197.400 isn’t necessarily a keeper score—at least if we’re looking at Michigan’s standards of the last couple seasons of away 198s—but the season-best beam rotation proved enough to beat Ohio State and get Michigan back to the #1 spot in the conference for this week.

#16 Oregon State (+5) — Oregon State has successfully been all over the map through the first three meets of the season, going 196 in week 1, 195 in week 2, and now a huge 197.575 in its home opener in week 3 to even things out and gain a bunch of spots back in the rankings. Jade Carey made her season debut on vault with a 9.875, showing us that there will in fact be Jade-Leg-Event experiences this year. Got to give the paying public what they want.

#22 Iowa State (+6) — Iowa State made the big ranking leap this week with a 196.900. It’s the team’s highest score since Big 12s in 2021 and second-highest score since KJ left in 2006. Iowa State missed regionals last year but now has logged 1 of 6 scores at the level required to definitely, absolutely make regionals this time around.

#22 Nebraska (+4) — Nebraska recovered well from last week’s injury to Lucy Stanhope, which could have been deflating for these lineups, instead coming up with a very useful 196.875 to gain several ranking spots.

Biggest Movers (-)

#15 UCLA (-4) — UCLA was the only team in the top 15 to suffer a major counting error this week with the two falls on bars producing another 196.550, the only 196 scored in the top 18 this week (which, by the way, is insane). It’s way too early to actually worry about NQS, but UCLA has just four road meets left in the season now, and three of them are probably going to need to be mid-197+ to ensure a useful postseason seeding. At this point, UCLA may be more concerned about what exactly the bars lineup is going to be when Malabuyo is world-cupping it.

#24 Clemson (-5) — Clemson experienced another kind of “Welcome to NCAA Gym” moment this week by scoring another perfectly solid and great-for-a-new-team 196 to keep them on track, yet falling a bunch of spots in the rankings because of how big everyone else’s scores were.

#28 Arizona State (-4) — Arizona State was in the mix for a 197 this week at Southern Utah but ended up counting a fall on beam to drop out of the top 25, the only team to lose a spot in the completely arbitrary top 25.

Other Keepers

#1 Oklahoma (198.325) — Oklahoma has recorded big scores every meet so far, but we know Oklahoma won’t entertain the idea of keeping anything outside the 198s around for NQS. This 198.325 ties for 39th on the all-time scores list and is the first score of the year that Oklahoma would be happy to have on a final NQS slate.

#2 Cal (197.875) — Cal recorded its second road 197.875 in as many weeks on Saturday, both of which eclipse last year’s regular season road peak of 197.825. This quick start means Cal has already logged 2 very viable scores among the 6 needed come April.

#4 Arkansas (197.525) — Does a program record count as a keeper? Friday’s visit to Alabama that ended in a tie (ahhhh friendship!) proved fruitful as Arkansas just squeaked ahead of its old record of 197.475. To have this big 197.525 road score secured early will be a boon to Arkansas’s ranking throughout the season.

#6 Alabama (197.525) —Alabama got the identical score to Arkansas, so while it doesn’t really hit the same way—what with this being nowhere close to an Alabama record and also a home score—it’s still a useful number and one that Alabama would have ended up using for NQS last season.

#7 Kentucky (197.600) — Despite losing to LSU, Kentucky will feel that this score reflects a mission accomplished, an opportunity taken to achieve a high road number at one of the best chances of the year to do so. Kentucky is another team with a 2024 schedule front-loaded with road meets, and this kind of result should help take the pressure off those last few road meets at the end of March to be big scores.

#14 Michigan State (197.475) —Michigan State figured out beam in its third meet of the season, following two 48.8s on the event with a meet-leading 49.450 this week en route to a much more count-worthy 197.475 road score. That’s now right on track with the road scores MSU ended up counting last season.

The Tennessee Meet Teams — Of course, definite keeper scores belong to all the teams that got the golden ticket that was competing in last Friday’s two-session competition in Tennessee—in which all seven schools received program record scores, most of them by more than a fall, some by a whole point. Ball State went 198.025, Kent State went 197.725, Lindenwood went 197.075, SEMO went 197.050, NIU went 196.400, Whitewater went 194.450, and Fisk went 193.400. All…kind of keepers.