Sports are so weird, and this one seems to get weirder all the time. I was so delighted by a nationals weekend that I never saw coming. I’m even more delighted that I don’t have to be sad it’s over because the offseason is also incredibly weird and is already starting to show it. In my last column of the 2025 season, we’re meditating on the good but mostly the bad (because it’s more interesting) and on the past but especially the future (because I can’t stop making everything about recruiting.) I’ll see you in the 2026 preseason. Which is actually really soon.
Question: Who’s going to take advantage of the transfer portal?
I’m always looking ahead, even when plenty is going on right now; I’ve been building 2026 lineups in my head for weeks now. So, even when I’m watching postseason meets and everything seems great, half of my mind is going “OK, which of you are going to leave?”
Apparently, quite a few. The expected wave of cuts related to the (still unofficial but at this point generally accepted) roster limit rules for next year have started, and we’ve got some reasonably high-profile transfer portal entrants for other reasons, too. eMjae Frazier, if we’re all interpreting her graduation correctly, is a really fascinating prospect whether or not those Florida rumors materialize. Beyond the natural intrigue of the cryptic circumstances of Naya Howard’s departure from Georgia, I’m curious what she wants: Is she someone who would love to be a specialist or intermittent contributor on a team that truly contends, since Georgia seems destined not to be one of those, or does she want to be an all-around star? (Joints willing, of course.) She could likely have either, so it’s hard to guess without knowing her personally.
I love Emma Wehry at Auburn. The Tigers have been so great recently at recruiting from the portal, as well as getting commitment switches, and Wehry also has a redshirt year to potentially use if things work out for her on the Plains. I’ve loved her since level 10, and she could be seriously flashy at a team that can afford to be a bit more strategic with her talent. Some of the most tantalizing uncommitted transfer prospects come from the middle of the rankings. Lola Sepulveda, formerly of Bridgeport, is a rising senior and all-arounder who does extremely feisty gymnastics and is used to carrying a lot of responsibility. Reese Grolla, transferring from Illinois State, is a beautifully stylish Canadian bars/beam gymnast who could anchor lineups at any number of teams.
I love the transfer portal because I love recruiting, but this is a slightly wiser version: It tells you about what’s important to athletes who have lived college gymnastics. These are recruits for whom this isn’t a daydream anymore, and they understand the hard parts about it deeply and personally. But the opportunity of a fresh start at a new team that matches what they’ve learned about themselves over the career they’ve had so far can earn back some of that magic, too. I also love that it rewards coaches who do the extra work of thoroughly investigating transfer prospects. Sometimes it’s obvious what you’re getting, but sometimes it takes a little more vision.
Bonus Questions:
When do those BETTER IS STILL A DEDUCTION tanks go on sale? What a line, and what an ethos to bring into the national final of all meets. That’s what it’s all about. I want 12 of them.
Is whatever people are signing now instead of an NLI actually binding? There have been a smattering of intriguing rumors about late commitment switches. Previously, if you had signed an NLI, you’d need to appeal (or have your future head coach leave) to get out of it. I don’t know if that’s true anymore, and if it’s not, things could get very interesting. Watch the teams who don’t currently have a coach: It was possible to decommit late in the context of a coaching change even in the NLI era, and it might now be an outright trend.
Comment: BREAKING: K.J. Kindler is good at her job.
All the narratives about Oklahoma not being quite itself this year were real and valid, and then just didn’t matter. Remember all those concerns about fatigue on the all-arounders when there were five going with no breaks? To be fair, the Sooners did end the season with just three, but who would have guessed that Addison Fatta would be one of them? I still don’t really agree with that, but who cares? It didn’t matter. The lineups that ended up happening were easily enough for the championship that happened. You could argue that a little more pacing could have given the Sooners more in the tank at earlier important moments like SECs, but with the national title in hand, it feels much less relevant.
We thought vault wasn’t coming together the way it should, and to be fair, it kind of never did. I made myself laugh during the final by telling Lou Ball through the screen (I’m sure he values my advice) that with four good vaults up, he should be telling the last two vaulters to just go forward at any cost, and that’s pretty much what they did. Jordan Bowers almost diving forward off the mat wasn’t obviously her exact plan, but it was the right overcorrection to make with the meet shaping up the way it was and heading to the safest event. Getting over 49.500 only twice all season is really odd given the talent level and depth on hand, but who cares now?
There have been Oklahoma teams that were more perfect, more dominant, more record-breaking. After what happened last year, this team was built not to be the first to blink. Could Florida or LSU have put together a meet on the last day of the season that was too good for Oklahoma to touch even with a clean meet? Yeah, it’s possible. Was there some luck for Oklahoma in neither of those teams making it to the last day? Sure. Was there luck in Oklahoma not being the team that happened to? Not really. As much as it baffled me as the season went along, as much as I didn’t always see the vision, this team being what it was was the plan.
Bonus Comments:
Alabama should be really happy with this one. Yes, it’s the same final ranking as last year, but after a season of being underestimated at every turn, the Crimson Tide executed beautifully down the stretch to make it here at all and then hit 24 routines at nationals to erase those memories of last year’s impressive beam meltdown in Fort Worth. With another great freshman class coming in (you’ll want to know the name Jasmine Cawley, she can fill and excel in those Lilly Hudson lineup spots) and plenty more to come from the rising sophomores, this season felt like an important foundation.
I truly don’t care which graduating high school seniors are cutting their level 10 seasons short due to unspecified injury. There’s a lot of it going around, and I think it’s just a strategic trend that will be of no consequence come August. Obviously, if you haven’t put together a decent all-around set since 2023, that’s a different issue, but these athletes who had half of a good season and are still showing up places with no injury paraphernalia are probably going to be fine.
Concern: Should LSU or Florida be more bummed about this meet?
I mean, neither should be happy. That was not good.
I made excuses for Florida throwing SECs away on beam after blowing the roof off the place on bars. It’s about the demonstrated ceiling, I thought. You only have to get lucky with the good rotations once at the right time, and the opponents also have flaws. That’s true, of course. You also only have to get unlucky once to end your season, and you don’t get Leanne Wong back. Leanne herself going out with a metaphorical whimper is one of many real disappointments from that day. For Florida, the agony of this is that after all these generations and reinventions and recruiting victories and hopes, the championship is just as far away. Now, with LSU at its historical apex and Oklahoma in the SEC, there isn’t even a likely conference championship as a consolation prize. You have to ask—as many have and continue to do—if Jenny Rowland just isn’t capable of it.
The solace for the Gators is that the personnel is there and will continue to be there. Losing these seniors is tough, but the signing class is phenomenal, Kayla DiCello is coming back with potentially still a whole bunch of eligibility, and Skye Blakely will have ankles next year. Selena Harris-Miranda will be a senior, so that’s four important routines out in 2026, but as a consolation, you get four good and persistently pretty healthy U.S. elites. I’m not even touching the eMjae Frazier rumor, but the fact that it’s plausible says enough. This will continue. If the lack of trophies was going to dissuade hilarious numbers of top recruits from Florida, it would have happened by now. It really is a testament to how hard this sport is that the Rowland administration hasn’t lucked into a title by now. But the minute they figure out how to coach for the postseason, it will happen, because the routines are always going to be there. This goes both ways, too, though: The opportunities missed are all the more grating because of the talent level.
LSU’s loss was in some ways better: It didn’t throw its season away. UCLA paced beautifully, peaked at the right time, and was just extremely difficult to beat that day. But still, it honestly never crossed my mind that LSU would be mediocre. In such a tough semifinal, it had occurred to me that the Tigers might crack mentally on beam, as we’ve seen in postseasons past, and count a fall. To hop their way out of such a close meet when we’ve seen such competitive fire and concentration throughout the season was a different kind of baffling. This was on the tail of six consecutive 198-plus scores. LSU had been in cruise control. Maybe that was the problem.
But if Florida will be wishing for Leanne back, LSU has to come back from this as a completely different team next year. Ten seniors or grad students, and almost none have eligibility to return. This is three years of top recruits folded into one with transfers on top, with the very last drops squeezed out of COVID-year eligibility and some redshirts on top. The ones who didn’t compete, or not as much, this year are still such important parts of the team identity.
LSU will be great in 2026. We’re rounding into finally seeing the full extent of Konnor McClain’s talent again, Kailin Chio isn’t getting less dangerous, and there are a couple of key injury returners, plus a really useful freshman class. But there’s a real sense in which the championship team is gone now. There was a clear road to winning this year more or less the same way as 2024. Next year, it’ll be a very different story.
Florida always, always should be better. There’s an inevitability about it. You’ll never really understand why. LSU finally solved the puzzle after so long and then, with the routines and the momentum and the hard-won confidence, couldn’t even give itself the opportunity to defend it all. (To protect the crown, as it were. I’m trying not to mix metaphors too much.) Which hurts worse?
Bonus Concerns:
What’s with this mini-trend of multiple assistants leaving a team while the head coach stays? Both Iowa State and Denver have done this. It could be a total coincidence, with different opportunities and life circumstances arising at the same time for multiple people. But if it’s a strategy, it’s a new one, and there were some talented coaches on both of those staffs.
A lot of teams are going to be finding new identities next year with the departure of this senior class. This has nothing to do with whether the team will be good; it’s a vibes-based assessment. I’m fairly comfortable with Faith Torrez and Kailin Chio as the top all-arounders in the country and leaders of contending teams. Kayla DiCello’s return will provide a softer landing for Florida’s transition into a world without Leanne Wong. But what’s Oregon State now? Is Cal going to immediately become Ondine Achampong’s team? Utah without Grace McCallum is a strange thought, even with Makenna Smith and Avery Neff at the helm. Whose face will we see when we think of Kentucky? Is Missouri going to have an all-arounder?
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Article by Rebecca Scally
I would love to see Florida do something like MSU did in the offseason. MSU was sick of being good but not performing in the post season like they knew they were capable of doing, they sat down as a team and did real work to change things, and it paid off. TWU has also done a lot of mental and culture work over the past few years and is seeing the results. I feel like Florida should be having a similar moment, but I worry that a season full of 198’s and recruiting classes full of top talent will make them feel like there isn’t any need for introspection and adjustments.
LSU will win MORE National Championships again in the future: they’re NOT going anywhere anytime soon.
The SECOND KJ Kindler eventually retires down the road, the OU Dynasty will IMPLODE & crumble.