The NCAA is in effective talks with USA Gymnastics about how to overhaul its undergraduate men’s gymnastics championships, conversations that could lead to planned major events, shared personnel, or mix- selling partnerships.
The discussions are a part of a pilot initiative spearheaded by Team USA to preserve the crucial link between institution and international athletics. In order to improve awareness and financial viability for female’s gymnastics, partners on both sides are pursuing a unit that could later be applied to other sports that are being threatened by changes occurring in college athletics.
” I want]national governing body ] leaders to have a seat at the table to help develop sports at the college level”, Rocky Harris, Team USA’s chief of sport and athlete services, said in an interview. They know the sport stronger than anyone else, so that’s important. They know what works, what does n’t, how you can take advantage, how you can commercialize it”.

Hosting coordinated events, possibly a USA Gymnastics ( USAG ) youth regional that would coincide with the NCAA championships in the same city or location, is one of the options discussed for men’s gymnastics. They’ve discussed staffing synergies that had lower costs, sponsorship deals that could increase profits, and more mundane, but likewise crucial, topics like parliamentary changes that may improve the sport’s appeal to schools and media partners.
The discussions took place as part of Team USA’s 2020 College Sports Sustainability Think Tank, a program designed to bridge the gap between NCAA and Olympic activities. One of the main individuals of its enormous Olympic success is America’s great collegiate athletics system, which has been highlighted in recent years by budget cuts related to the COVID pandemic and then over concerns that increased formalization of football and basketball may divert resources from less lucrative sports.
That’s particularly weak in men’s Olympian sports, owing to Title IX factors, and equally true for men’s gymnastics. Team USA, which chose its Olympic lineup at investigations this past weekend, heavily relies on those groups as a feed system, with only 15 undergraduate people’s gymnastics programs, which are among the fewest of any NCAA-sponsored sports. All five gymnastics, and both traveling Olympics alternatives, are either energetic college sportsmen or former NCAA celebrities.
It’s also an expensive sports for institutions. The eight common FBS schools that offer female’s gymnastics reported an average resources of$ 1.23 million in fiscal 2023, according to Sportico’s college funding collection. That’s compared to$ 606, 000 for men’s fencing,$ 879, 000 for men’s golf, and$ 907, 000 for water polo.
The Team USA think tank’s activities control captain has focused on men’s gymnastics, which includes track & field, and landscaping. People in both the NCAA and the Olympic movements hope that it will serve as a framework for other sports to encourage more collaboration between college programs and national governing bodies ( NGGs ).

” What do costs usually look like for an NCAA finals”? Adam Wood, Team USA’s chairman of undergraduate performance processes, said in an exam. Can we divide the cost of hosting a youth event at USAG and have both companies share it? They were going to have those bills anyhow, in different locations. So it’s more about how to effectively invest money for businesses and workers, because the pool of money, at least for some of these activities at the undergraduate level, it’s no football”.
The NCAA men’s gymnastics championship is currently a two- day format. There is no longer a day dedicated to individual finals. The think tank is considering expanding that men’s event to four days—qualifiers, rest day, team final and individual disciplines—which could better promote the stories of specific athletes and create more time and space for an overlapping USAG event, according to Alyssa Rice, the NCAA’s assistant director of championships. A different kind of gymnastics-loving crowd that might also be interested in watching some of the best college athletes compete during the same week, Rice said, is brought to USAG’s youth events. Same goes for sponsors. She said that at one point, the group also discussed the possibility of having national teams compete in a co-located event, a moonshot idea that would likely require a lot more coordination.
Also under consideration: sport sponsorship minimums. Men’s college gymnastics programs are currently required to play a minimum of nine matches per year by the NCAA. If that was lowered to eight, would it potentially entice more schools to consider adding ( or keeping ) the sport?
We’re in a situation where we need to think outside the box, Rice said. That has led to a lot of open discussion, fresh ideas, and creativity in terms of how we can continue to expand this platform and men’s gymnastics.
The level of collaboration between NGBs and college stakeholders has historically varied depending on the sport. Asked who does it well, Wood referenced USA Basketball, which has three college- specific board seats. NCAA executive Dan Gavitt, Stanford AD Bernard Muir, and Texas Longhorns exec Chris Plonsky are currently occupying them.
There are many extra variables in the men’s gymnastics talks, one of which is ESPN. The NCAA recently concluded an$ 820 million, eight-year,$ 900 million agreement with the Disney division, which covers almost all of its championships outside of men’s basketball. Men’s gymnastics was a recent addition to that package.
The biggest variable, however, is the bid process for host locations. Major changes would need to be made for 2027 at the earliest because the NCAA typically bidding out championships years in advance. The NCAA is currently in the bid process for 2027 and 2028 men’s gymnastics championships, Rice said, and there is a note in the bid documents that references the potential changes. ( USAG also has its own bid process for major events, which will stay separate, at least for now ).
In other words, a lot remains in flux, much like almost everything else in college sports. The NCAA is in the midst of rapid—and significant—change, and while many of the concerns over Olympic sports have been prevalent for decades, the next few years could be the critical period.
” Where there have previously been informal connections between coaches groups and an NGB, or coaches groups and the NCAA, we’ve now got a more committed way to talk to each other”, Liz Suscha, the NCAA’s managing director of championships, said in an interview. We’re all working toward figuring out how to accomplish things. If we continue to do this, what we’re getting out of these partnerships today will look radically different in five or six years.