Scoring trends in college gymnastics reveal a lot about where the sport is heading. Every tenth of a point matters, especially in a subjective sport where scores are influenced by several ever-changing factors. Each season also brings new rules. In 2026, the WCGA modified the judging conference rules to allow either judge to call a conference, rather than just the head judge. The WCGA also shuttered the SCOREBoard Judge’s Evaluation System late in the 2025 season, which was intended to keep judges accountable by reviewing routines throughout the season to ensure consistency in scores. This system was not used at all in 2026. Each season brings new trends in scoring, new gymnasts, and ever-increasing difficulty. To understand what changed between the 2025 and 2026 seasons, data editor Emma Hammerstrom compiled and analyzed scores from both seasons, comparing the distribution of scores, average scores, and the frequency of perfect scores. Here’s what the data shows.
Did scores get looser overall in 2026?
To start, we looked at the percentages of each score in the 2026 season from 9.625 to 10.0. The pink bar is the most important here, demonstrating the distribution of a specific score in 2026 compared to the 2025 season, which is in black. Overall, the scoring distribution stayed the same without any significant changes. Any visible trends in the chart fall within the margin of error of this analysis, so they cannot be attributed to a significant change in the data.
Breaking down this same analysis by event reveals more noticeable changes in scoring distribution. The distribution of vault scores above 9.800 generally stayed the same or increased in 2026, while scores below 9.800 slightly decreased. Bars and beam illustrated a decrease in middle-of-the-road scores (9.8-9.85) this season, while floor had an increase in the upper echelon of scores (9.85+). However, it is important to note that these were changes of just a percentage point or two, and can also be attributed to margin of error.
This is reflected in an analysis of the mean and median score on each event in 2025 and 2026, where there is at most a 0.025 point difference between seasons on any event. The most noticeable trend here is that beam scoring got slightly tighter in 2026, while floor scoring got slightly looser.
Scoring Trends By Class
When the season’s scores are broken down by class, larger trends emerge. Sophomores and juniors performed better this season compared to 2025, while seniors (both true seniors and graduate years for the purpose of this analysis) performed slightly worse.
Scoring Trends By Month
Early-season meets showed looser scoring compared to 2025, with the average score in January trending just over half a tenth higher than the 2025 season. However, scores began to tighten by March and into April. Notably, the average score in April (with exclusively post-season meets) was over a tenth lower than in the 2025 season. Fans may have noticed this during NCAA regionals, where judging seemed notably tighter than in past seasons.
Distribution of 10.000 Scores
The most prominent scoring trend of 2026 lies in the distribution of perfect 10.000 scores. Vault had a significant 85% increase in perfect scores, with 15 tallied in 2026 compared to just 6 in 2025. Bars displayed the opposite trend, with a 58% decrease in perfect routines in 2026. Beam and floor showed a slight decrease in 10.000 scores, but overall without a significant change. Only 30 perfect scores were given out in 2026, a 32% drop from 2025.
What changed in 2026?
Overall, scoring was slightly tighter than it was in 2025. The aggregate score distribution showed no statistically significant change, but event-level and subgroup breakdowns reveal more prominent trends. Scoring got tighter this season on bars, in the postseason, and for freshman and senior gymnasts. Vault scoring got looser, especially with respect to perfect scores. Whether the loss of the SCOREboard panel contributed to any of these shifts, particularly the trends in perfect scores, is a question for next season’s data to help answer.
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Article by Emma Hammerstrom
