The Mount: Week 10

As always we have previews of the top meets, our opinions on who we think will win, a full schedule of events and every link for scoring and. Video you could ever need. But we don’t want to be the only ones with opinions. We want to hear yours too! So play along by answering who you think will win each matchup by participating in the polls. And if you feel strongly about your choices, feel free to let us know in the comments below. The records from last week’s college pick em are as follows: Casey (1-4), Elizabeth (2-3), fan vote (2-3).

Big Five Qualifier: No. 6 Michigan, No. 18 Iowa, No. 19 Minnesota, No. 40 Rutgers at No. 28 Penn State: Saturday, March 12 at 1:00 p.m. ET

The Big 10 conference handles its conference championships differently from the others in NCAA gymnastics. Because of the addition of Maryland and Rutgers to the group last season, the conference now boasts 10 teams. So to make things fair at Big 10s, it decided to hold two semifinal competitions to determine which six teams would get to compete at the night session and which would compete earlier in the day in session one. So at each Big Five meet, the top three teams qualify to session two while the bottom two teams are sent to session one. In this first Big Five meet, the qualifiers are almost obvious. Michigan is nearly 100 percent guaranteed to move on to the night session while Minnesota and Iowa are not far behind. however, if Iowa has one of its 194 performances and not one of its 196 ones, things could get interesting if Penn State or Rutgers do well. And besides the qualification process, the meet will also be one of two final opportunities to drop any lingering low scores before regional selection arrives.

Big Five Qualifier: No. 16 Nebraska, No. 23 Illinois, No. 34 Michigan State, No. 39 Maryland at No. 28 Ohio State:Saturday, March 12 at 4:00 p.m. ET

The same criteria applies for this semifinal where the top three teams will move on to compete in session two while the bottom two will compete in the afternoon. However, this competition is much less straightforward than the first one. Nebraska and Illinois would be shoo-ins every other year but be struggles some in 2916. Nebraska showed everyone they can hit when healthy, so it is less of a question mark than Illinois. Illinois has had its bright spots and its very, very dark ones as well this season. If 196 Illinois shows up, it should have no problem advancing. But if early-season Illinois comes to compete, things could get interesting. Michigan State and Ohio State have also had some good performances and some not-so-good ones as well, but are more on the consistent side than Illinois has been. The duo as well as Maryland, if it’s having a good day, should challenge for the final night session spot.

No. 9 Georgia at No. 5 Utah: Saturday, March 12 at 7: p.m. ET
Georgia has shown in the past it can upset even the best teams in the country. However, those upsets have almost exclusively come at home. And this meet is not only at Utah but on the Red Rocks’ senior night. Plus remember how the Gymdogs ended Utah’s perfect season last year. Expect the Utes to be seeking a little revenge for that in this battle between two 10-time national champions. Georgia needs a big score at this meet on the road to have any chance of making the night session of SECs. The team also needs a bit of help from Auburn but needs to do its part as well. Utah is sitting pretty. In the top five in the country and will look toward holding its ranking and preparing for Pac-12s than trying to improve at all. It will be interesting to see whether or not Kailah Delaney and Samantha Partyka are fully-rested and back in the lineups this week. Same goes for Brittany Rog who tweaked her ankle at last Friday’s meet and sat out floor Sunday.

No. 1 Oklahoma at No. 8 UCLA: Sunday, March 13 at 5:00 p.m. ET
Oklahoma is obviously the stronger team. Especially is UCLA holds Cipra, Francis, Lee or any combination of the three from the lineups Sunday. Oklahoma’s too strong for UCLA to have the B-team competing, even if the Bruins are at home on senior night. Expect some crazy scores because we saw them last weekend and it was even senior night. UCLA has dropped in the rankings after two sub-par scores while Oklahoma is sitting pretty in the top spot. So this meet is more crucial to the Bruins as Oklahoma could not compete at all or put Hunter Price and Nicole Turner up on every event and still be fine come conference championships and regionals. Do keep an eye on that Sooner beam lineup, though. It’s still a bit of a question mark. Also, can Kara Lovan please get herself together already? Please?

Other notable matchups
No. 57 North Carolina at No. 2 Florida: Friday, March 11 at 7:00 p.m. ET
Yay senior night at Florida. Expect a 198, multiple 10s and a Bridget Sloan 40 (even if she does still stick with the Yurchenko full because #BridgetSloan). UNC is basically like the D3 football program a school like Florida pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to come play for a guaranteed win. The Gators would have to fall approximately 16 times on each event not to win. So it’s really all about Bridget Sloan and her band of minions. Oh and Morgan Lane because she’s fabulous and domes not get the recognition she deserves.No. 48 Arizona State at No. 7 Auburn: Friday, March 11 at 8:00 p.m. ET
The most exciting thing about this meet will probably the fact that Dr. Rene Lyst has been put on administrative leave and won’t be coaching the team she nearly ran into the he ground at the final meet before conference championships. Oh, and there’s also the fact that Auburn can clinch the night easily of the SEC Championships with a 196.9, according to The Balance Beam Situation. That’s totally doable, especially for the Tigers at home on senior night. All they have to do is remotely hit their routines and that No. 4-seed in the conference is theirs. Auburn can also move up even higher than its current No. 7-ranking with a big score, so it’ll be looking to accomplish that as well.

No. 32 Utah State at No. 11 Arkansas: Friday, March 11 at 8:00 p.m. ET
Arkansas is pretty much out of contention for that No. 4-spot at the SEC Championships. And if it doesn’t score big this weekend and next, it could be looking at a not-so-great regionals placement. The 1-12-13 regional is pretty much the worst and 2-10-14 isn’t much better. So to stay out of that dangerous territory, the Razorbacks needs to capitalize on some home scoring and senior night advantages.

No. 14 California, No. 41 Sacramento State at No. 42 UC-Davis: Friday, March 11 at 10:00 p.m. ET
This away meet for Cal is all about getting a high score. The Bears are sitting in the bad zone for regionals, but it might actually be good for them. Any higher a ranking is a big out of reach and anything lower would place the team in the hands of two better teams. A strong away score this weekend and at Pac-12s would help with RQS, but the main goal should be maintaining. Maintaining the high rankings, maintaining the top session of the conference championships and maintaining consistency to potentially earn that team spot at nationals. But with a good showing, the team has a real chance of not only making the night session of Pac-12s but jumping Stanford to land as the No. 3-seed as well.

No. 3 LSU, No. 30 New Hampshire, No. 16 Oregon State at No. 59 Texas Woman’s: Saturday, march 12 at 7:00 p.m. ET
This meet will have a little bit of everything. LSU is pretty much safe at No. 3 but it wouldn’t help to get another strong road score under its belt. Oregon State is currently on the outside looking in at the night session of Pac-12s, so anything higher than a 195.850, according to The Balance Beam Situation, should change that view. new Hampshire started off strong but kind of fell off the second half of the season. Beam was great for the team but with Casey Lauter kind of injured and some others banged up, it’s gone downhill. Get that back together, and UNH could see itself moving up.

No. 10 Denver, No. 58 Seattle-Pacific at No. 24 Washington: Saturday, March 12 at 9:00 p.m. ET
Dener is coming off a high 196 and 197 weekend, something the Pioneers should be very proud about despite the loss Sunday. While it was a true away meet, we now know Denver can hit big scores at home and on the road. Another 197 or at the very least a high 196 this weekend will help the Pioneers’ case even more. Sitting inside the top 10 right now is a huge accomplishment, and the team has a real chance of booking not just one or two tickets to Fort Worth but a whole team’s-worth.

These aren’t the only meets happening this weekend! To see all the matchups all in one place, take a look at our master schedule. You can also find live scoring and video links below.