Friday is a busy night in NCAA gymnastics, even though we won’t see much in terms of big top ten matchups. Florida competing at Arkansas could be a fun one, as the last time the Gators traveled to Fayetteville for a regular season meet in 2011, the Razorbacks defeated them by six-tenths, shocking fans of both teams! Arkansas could have the home team edge again this time around, especially if Florida holds back on using their full arsenal; then again, the Razorbacks are marginally weaker than they were two years ago, so it’s tough to say either way.

Other top teams competing on Friday? LSU travels to Kentucky, Nebraska hosts Illinois, Utah hosts Arizona State, and Oklahoma will compete in a quad meet hosted by West Virginia. We’re also excited for Minnesota to compete at Michigan State; it won’t be much of a nail-biter, but the Gophers are coming down from a big win at home against Michigan last week, so we’re interested in seeing whether they’ll be able to manage similar results on the road.

The two big conference meets on Saturday are Georgia vs Alabama and Stanford vs UCLA. In both situations, the host team is the weaker of the two, but not by much; home advantage could definitely be enough of a push for Georgia and Stanford, though Alabama and UCLA have enough talent and strength to rally for victory (and both the Crimson Tide and the Bruins have the added incentive of wanting to remain undefeated for the season). These are definitely the two you’ll want to watch.

Other good meets include Big Ten challenges between Michigan and Iowa (at Michigan) and Penn State and Ohio State (at Penn State). With Michigan back at home, they’ll want to boost their season ranking by surpassing 197 once again, and the Penn State/Ohio State match is typically a fun rivalry; neither team has hit their full potential yet this year, though with Sharaya Musser looking better last week than she has all season, she could be the key to pulling Penn State together for a big win at home.

We’re also interested in the “Illinois vs Michigan” battle that’ll be happening at UIC; it seems Illinois-Chicago and Illinois State will come together against Eastern and Central Michigan, which sounds like a blast and a good way to break up an otherwise long and tiring season!

On Sunday, Cal will host Oregon State. The Golden Bears have been kicking butt at home meets this season and until recently, I’d say that they’d actually have a pretty fair shot at taking down the Beavers. But at the Metroplex Challenge last weekend, the Beavers proved that they still have a ton of fight left; if they take that same fire to Berkeley this weekend, they’ll definitely come out on top.

As always, the first team listed is the host team, all meet times are listed in EST, and we’ll update links as we come across them! All videos listed have a cost involved unless otherwise noted. Enjoy the weekend!

Friday February 1

• 7 pm. Kentucky | LSU – Live Stats - Video
• 7 pm. Nebraska | Illinois – Live Stats – Video
• 7 pm. West Virginia | Oklahoma | Western Michigan | William & Mary – Live Stats – Video (free!)
• 7 pm. Michigan State | Minnesota – Live Stats
• 7 pm. Ball State | Centenary | Pennsylvania
• 7 pm. UW La Crosse | UW Oshkosh | Winona State
• 7:30 pm. Missouri | Auburn – Video
• 8 pm. Arkansas | Florida – Live Stats – Video
• 9 pm. Utah | Arizona State – Live Stats – Video (free!)
• 9 pm. Boise State | Brigham Young – Live Stats – Video
• 9 pm. Southern Utah | Utah State – Live Stats – Video
• 10 pm. Washington | Arizona – Live Stats – Video (free!)
• 10 pm. UC Davis | Seattle Pacific – Live Stats

Saturday February 2

• 12 pm. Cornell | Towson
• 1 pm. Temple | Bridgeport | Ursinus | West Chester – Video
• 1 pm. Wilson | Rhode Island College | SUNY Brockport
• 3 pm. UW Whitewater | UW Eau Claire
• 3:30 pm. Ithaca | Springfield | SUNY Cortland
• 4 pm. Georgia | Alabama – Live Stats – Video
• 4 pm. Michigan | Iowa – Live Stats – Video
• 4 pm. Bowling Green | Kent State – Live Stats
• 5 pm. North Carolina | Maryland
• 6 pm. Rutgers | Brown | Pittsburgh | Southern Connecticut
• 6 pm. Illinois-Chicago | Central Michigan | Eastern Michigan | Illinois State (Illinois-Michigan Challenge) – Live Stats
  
• 6 pm. Northern Illinois | Southeast Missouri – Live Stats - Video
• 7 pm. Stanford | UCLA – Video (free!)
• 7 pm. Penn State | Ohio State – Live Stats – Video
• 8 pm. Denver | Air Force | NC State | San Jose State – Live Stats – Video
• 8 pm. Texas Woman’s | Lindenwood

Sunday February 3

• 1 pm. New Hampshire | George Washington | Yale – Video
• 2 pm. Winona State | Gustavus
• 5 pm. California | Oregon State

Article by Lauren Hopkins
Photo from UCLA Gymnastics