In an email distributed to head coaches and administrators, the National Collegiate Women’s Gymnastics Committee has announced that three previously proposed rule changes have been approved by the Administrative Subcommittee of the NCAA Division I Cabinet to take effect for the 2026 season, which is due to start in early January.
Rule Change 1: Updated NQS Calculation
The updated National Qualifying Score (NQS) formula will take a minimum of nine meets into account, a significant departure from the previous formula that included exactly six meets no matter how many a team participated in during the season. A maximum of five scores from home meets may be counted; if a team competes in more than five home meets, then the five lowest scores will be retained, with all higher home scores being dropped. In addition, the scores from at least five away meets must be counted toward the minimum of nine. Once determining the meets that count toward NQS, the high and low scores will be dropped and the remaining scores averaged in order to obtain the final number used for rankings and postseason eligibility. The full details of the rule change, including example calculations, can be found on NCAA.org.
Rule Change 2: Neutral Site Meet Limitations
The NCAA has approved an earlier proposal to limit the number of neutral-site meets within 30 miles of a team’s home campus that can be counted as away meets. If a team has more than one such meet on its schedule, only one will be counted as an away meet, with the excess being designated as home contests. However, conference championship meets are excluded from this policy. Note that teams will still be allowed to participate in multiple neutral-site meets within 30 miles of campus; this rule change only affects the number of those meets that will be allowed to be counted as away scores for the purposes of NQS calculation.
Rule Change 3: Number of Postseason Competitors
The number of athletes allowed on the floor for postseason competition has been raised to 20 to reflect the roster size limitations that went into effect this summer. The previous rule only allowed 15 competitors in each round of competition.
What You Should Know About the Changes
What is the new NQS formula?
The new NQS formula factors in every meet a team competes, with the exception of extra home meets, dropping the high and low scores. This means every away meet will be factored in as well as the team’s five lowest home scores. Put simply, once a team reaches at least five away scores and at least nine scores overall, the calculation is:
- Include up to five home scores, taking the lowest five if there are six or more
- Include all the away scores
- Drop the high and the low scores
- Average the remaining
How will this affect teams that compete less?
The new formula is not expected to hurt teams that compete less as long as they compete in the minimum required five away meets and at least nine total meets. Historically, every WCGA program has done so in a non-COVID-affected season.
How will this affect teams that traditionally score higher at home or have generous home scoring?
For teams that typically score higher at home, this limits the advantage of extra home meets. Once a team reaches five home scores, any additional home meets can only replace existing scores—and potentially lower their NQS. Away meets now carry more weight, so programs with a significant home/away scoring gap may see that difference reflected more clearly in their final NQS. In short, for teams with more than five home meets: score a home high and it won’t count, but score low and it can bring down your NQS.
How does dropping only one high and one low score change teams’ strategies?
Teams may need to be more careful with poor performances, especially at home, since every other meet counts. Teams can’t simply rely on a few strong meets to offset weak ones. It also changes the value of home vs. away meets. Overall, consistency across all meets becomes more important, and teams may need to rethink how they approach riskier routines or strategic scheduling.
Will the proposed change to counting multiple close-distance neutral-site meets matter for this new formula?
Likely yes, because it will change which scores will count as home vs away. With all away scores counting and only five home scores counting, a score swapping from away to home could be the difference between it being included in the average or not.
How will the limit on neutral-site meets affect a team’s NQS?
Only one neutral-site regular-season meet within 30 miles of a team’s campus can count as an away meet. Any additional nearby neutral-site meets will count as home scores, which could reduce the number of away scores factored into a team’s NQS.
If a team has multiple neutral-site meets within 30 miles of campus, how is it determined which one counts as an away meet and which are treated as home scores?
It’s not clear yet whether the designation will be based on chronological order, score, or another method.
Can a team’s NQS go down now?
Yes. With the old formula, a team’s NQS could only stay the same or increase with new scores, as the lowest scores did not count. With the new formula, a low score will pull a team’s NQS down. In fact, if a team already has five home scores and only home meets remaining, its NQS cannot increase.
What if a team doesn’t have five away meets when the NQS rankings kick in?
All teams will be ranked by NQS starting week seven, regardless of how many away meets the team has participated in thus far. It will be calculated using at most five home scores and all away scores up to that point, dropping the high and low and averaging the rest. In the past, if a team did not have the required number of away meets then it wouldn’t get an NQS. That is no longer the case, however teams must ensure they hit the required five away meets before the postseason in order to be eligible to participate.
What would 2025 postseason qualification have looked like with this new formula?
Using the updated NQS formula on 2025 scores would have shuffled several teams within the top 36 regionals cutoff. The most notable shifts include Oklahoma moving up to No. 1 over LSU, Stanford jumping three spots into the top 10, Ohio State climbing four spots to No. 21, and George Washington soaring seven spots to No. 35.
Conversely, teams like Minnesota (-5), Iowa (-5), West Virginia (-10), and UC Davis (-12) would have dropped noticeably, with West Virginia and UC Davis falling out of regionals qualification completely and George Washington and Washington qualifying full teams in their places.
Overall, the top programs stay near their original positions, but the new formula tends to reward consistency across all meets and slightly penalizes teams with wider home/away score gaps.
How will individuals be affected?
The new NQS formula will not be used for individual NQS rankings or qualifying for the postseason. The old formula—taking the top six scores with at least three away and dropping the high, then averaging the remaining five—will still be in place.
How might we see teams’ schedules changing in the future based on these changes?
While no team fell under the minimum-required number of total meets (9) or away meets (5) in the 2025 season, we may see teams scheduling more away meets in the future to optimize opportunities to increase their NQS during crunch time for postseason qualification. We may also see teams like Utah compete in fewer close-to-home neutral-site meets.
Why is this being announced so late? Isn’t that unfair to teams who have already announced their schedules?
The original proposal for the NQS calculation changes was made during the 2024 season with the intention of taking effect for the 2026 season, so the information is not new to those directly involved with the sport. It was presented to the Sport Oversight Committee in August and would normally have been approved at that point, with several months left before schedules were due to be finalized. However, due to internal NCAA committee restructuring, all proposals were tabled until November. Given the timing of the changes, the deadline for submitting finalized schedules has been extended to December 10, 2026.
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Article by Jenna King, Claire Harmon, and Elizabeth Grimsley
