The fourth-ranked Gators will be the top seed at the NCAA Corvallis Region and begin their competition in the Friday night second session.
Bye-Bye Byes: Gators Tumble Into New NCAA Format
Thursday, April 4, 2019 | Gymnastics, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — They tried it once before, but it didn't take.
The year was 2010 and the National Collegiate Women's Gymnastics Championships Committee, looking to make its showcase event more fan friendly, voted to reduce the teams participating in the sport's championship round from six to four beginning in 2011. Upon further review, the committee backed off and maintained the status quo. UF coach Jenny Rowland
Until now.
Welcome to 2019 and the revamped NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships format, which begins Thursday at four regional sites across the country, as the 36-team field will begin the winnowing process of getting down to eight that will head to Fort Worth, Texas, later this month to compete for a national title.
So long, "Super Six."
Hello, "Four on the Floor."
"I like it," UF coach Jenny Rowland said. "Obviously, our association has been in favor of it for a while now."
Try to follow.
Nine teams will be at four regional sites — Athens, Ga., Baton Rouge, La., Ann Arbor, Mich., and Corvallis, Ore. — where competition begins with a first-round dual between the eighth- and ninth-seeded teams from each region. Think NCAA basketball in Dayton, Ohio. A "play-in" round, if you will. The survivor will advance into Friday's regional round of eight, which will be staged with day/night double sessions at each venue. Two teams from each session will move on to Saturday's final round, with the two highest-scoring teams from that day heading to Fort Worth for the NCAA championships April 19-20.
With eight teams in the national semifinals and four in the championship round, that means all four teams will be in action during all four rotations — and no byes.
Better for the student-athletes, better for the fans and (this is key, of course) better for television, especially in the championship round.
Gill Coliseum (capacity 9,604), on the campus of Oregon State, will be the site of the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Corvallis Regional, where the Gators will be the top seed among nine teams when competition gets underway Thursday. UF has capture 18 regional titles all-time, including one in each of the last seven seasons.
"I'm really excited for the end result, which I think will be amazing," said Rowland, whose fourth-ranked Gators finished second to LSU at the Southeastern Conference meet by just one-tenth-and-quarter point last month, and are headed to Corvallis as the top seed in that regional. "To have four on the floor, from a spectators standpoint, I think is wonderful. It'll work much better as far as TV and getting more viewers. That's one of our goals and this is a way of doing it without compromising the health of the student-athlete."
Physical health, as well as short-term mental health.
Byes can be brutal on the psyche.
Under the previous six-team regional and national formats, two teams were always in their respective locker rooms taking turns with required byes before rotating to bars or floor. Depending on the team or the individual, it can be a loud and rowdy or anxious and introspective 20 minutes or so. Amelia Hundley
"That's just as much an event as actually being out there. You really have to control your thoughts," UF junior Amelia Hundley said. "Our team? We try to stay in our zone. Me? I don't like to look at the score or try to figure out where we are and what we need on this or that. I try to stay in my own bubble, knowing you have to come down and then rev yourself back up."
Rowland has rolled into her locker room for a bye with music blasting to keep her gymnasts jacked.
"Sometimes it's so loud you can't hear yourself think," she said. "And usually it's music I'm not familiar with."
Whatever it takes either to keep the athletes in the moment or get them where they need to be.
Bridget Sloan was part of three NCAA championship teams at Florida from 2013-15, and in 2016, won NCAA all-around and shared the beam and bar individual titles in her final championship meet.
Sloan is now a color analyst for ESPN and will be working the championships. She likes the changes.
"Having four teams there is going to make the meet go much smoother and make it more watchable," Sloan said. "The byes were tough because you have to take yourself down, then take yourself back up, however you did that. I do think one of the things that made the Super Six so exciting was that last rotation. Sometimes, though, you'd have to sit and wait it out."
Not anymore.
Now, there's final four.
"They said we couldn't use that name … that it was taken," Rowland said. "I like 'Four On the Floor.' It makes sense."
