{"id":1164466,"date":"2026-02-23T19:41:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T00:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/?p=1164466"},"modified":"2026-02-23T19:41:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T00:41:52","slug":"could-2026-alabama-gymnastics-be-something-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/could-2026-alabama-gymnastics-be-something-special\/","title":{"rendered":"Could 2026 Alabama Gymnastics Be Something Special?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tJan 19, 2024; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; Alabama gymnast Chloe LaCoursiere celebrates after her routine on the bars in Coleman Coliseum Friday. Alabama and Arkansas tied with scores of 197.525.\t<\/p>\n

The most important thing to understand about NCAA gymnastics is that the W-L record is not very important in evaluating a squad. Alabama is 5-2, but that doesn\u2019t mean diddly squat. First off, the \u201closses\u201d came on the road at Oklahoma and Florida \u2013 two of the darlings of women\u2019s gymnastics. NCAA judging has been notoriously slanted towards certain programs over the last decade or so, and NO team in the nation is going to get a fair shake when arriving in those arenas. [BTW, Bama\u2019s next meet is in Baton Rouge \u2013 home of another puppy-love team who judges get all weak-kneed around.]<\/p>\n

The best way to appraise the strength of a team is the National Qualifying Score. The NQS is a ranking system used in college gymnastics to determine which teams qualify for postseason competitions. It is calculated<\/a> by meet scores, with specific requirements for away and home scores, and helps assess overall performance rather than just wins and losses. Thus, road defeats do not punish a team as long as the score was good. And Alabama has consistently had some good scores this season.<\/p>\n

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DateVSOPPLOCRESULTPTS<\/span>Jan 9, 2026AwayClemsonClemson, SCW, 197.475-196.550197.475Jan 16, 2026AwayFloridaGainesville, FLL, 197.275-197.425197.275Jan 23, 2026HomeMissouriTuscaloosa, ALW, 197.500-197.225197.500Jan 30, 2026HomeOregon StateTuscaloosa, ALW, 197.450-195.825197.450Feb 6, 2026AwayOklahomaNorman, OKL, 197.475-198.200197.475Feb 13, 2026HomeArkansasTuscaloosa, ALW, 197.950-196.900197.950Feb 20, 2026AwayAuburnAuburn, ALW, 197.950-197.250197.950<\/p>\n

The magic number to hit for elite gymnastics teams in 198.00 or higher. Thus far in the season, only five teams have been given such a score, but three of them are calculated below Alabama. The last two weeks, the Crimson Tide has been right on the verge of hitting that mark, but have not reached it as of yet. Despite that fact, Alabama is ranked No. 3 in NQS.<\/p>\n

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RANKTEAMNQSAVEHIGHCONF1Oklahoma197.938197.934198.425SEC2LSU197.735197.693198.325SEC3Alabama197.570197.582197.950SEC4Florida197.480197.421198.050SEC5UCLA197.450197.478198.150B1G6Georgia197.296197.291197.675SEC7Missouri197.163197.169197.550SEC8Arkansas197.150197.072197.700SEC<\/p>\n

These numbers say a lot about the Tide\u2019s consistency. It seems every years since legendary Bama gym coach Sarah Patterson retired, an Alabama squad was always destined for an off-day and a sub-197 score. So far, they have had some very strong scores.<\/p>\n

Current Alabama coach Ashley Johnston has assembled a solid group of youngsters to match with some upperclassmen leadership. Junior Chloe LaCoursiere is the national leader\u00a0on the bars. Others to watch include RS-senior Jordyn Paradise (excellent on vault and bars), all-around senior Gabby Gladieux (especially on the floor exercise), freshman Azaraya Ra-Akbar (bars), freshman Jasmine Cawley and sophomore Kylee Kvamme (both on beam).<\/p>\n

\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/could-2026-alabama-gymnastics-something-194152692.html<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jan 19, 2024; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; Alabama gymnast Chloe LaCoursiere celebrates after her routine on the bars in Coleman Coliseum Friday. Alabama and Arkansas tied…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1164467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1164466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1164466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1164467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1164466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1164466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1164466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}