For those curious how NCAA gymnastics championships are determined (using some common terms from other sports)
36 teams make the “tournament” with 9 at each location.
The top 16 teams are seeded and spread out
- one location has 1, 8, 9, 16
- another has 2, 7, 10, 15
- another has 3, 6, 11, 14
- the last has 4, 5, 12, 13
The other 20 teams are distributed based mostly on best geographical fit, rather than rank.
Then the #8 and #9 seeds in each region have a “play-in” to see who gets to the main part, where there are two meets for each region.
The #1, #4, #5, #8 seeds (within the region) are one half, and the #2, #3, #6, #7 are the other half. The top two from both of those advance to the regional final to have one more meet. The top 2 from that meet advance to the finals (held later)
Utah was the #5 overall, which made them the #2 seed in their region (behind UCLA, who they beat in the PAC championships).
Utah advanced by beating #12 Auburn, Southern Utah and Washington. Washington was considered the weakest of the 4 but advanced with Utah.
In the other half of the region it went to chalk as #4 UCLA and #13 Mizzou advanced over Stanford and Boise St (who beat BYU in the play-in)
As a result, UCLA, Utah, Mizzou, Washington will be competing tomorrow with the top 2 advancing out of regionals to the final 8 in mid-April.
Once it gets down to 8 there will be 2 semifinals with 4 teams each, top 2 advancing. That will get the final “Four on the Floor” who will have a final meet on 15 April to determine the champion
.
Loading ...
