How does women's college gymnastics scoring work? What to know before NCAA tournament

Scoring in women's college gymnastics can get confusing. It's also much different than the scoring used for gymnastics at the Olympic level. The 2026 women's college gymnastics national championship semifinals take place on Thursday, April 16, in Fort Worth, Texas, before the national championship competition on April 18.

Oklahoma, Arkansas, UCLA and Minnesota compete for two national championship spots in the first semifinal, whereas LSU, Stanford, Florida and Georgia are competing for the other two spots in the second semifinal. REQUIRED READING: Who's in NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships semifinals? Updated bracket, schedule Women's college gymnastics does have the perfect 10 in its scoring, with perfectly executed routines earning the illustrious score, unlike at the Olympic level where there's no perfect 10 score.

Perfect 10s are also quite rare, as the most ever in a career by a single gymnast is 28, with Jenny Hansen, Jamie Dantzscher and Trinity Thomas all tied for the most. Even the most diehard gymnastics fans could use a refresher on the sport's scoring from time to time. Here's how women's gymnastics scoring works ahead of the semifinals and finals in 2026: How does women's college gymnastics scoring work?

Unlike elite scoring, which is used at the Olympics, and men's college gymnastics, women's college gymnastics doesn't use the open-ending scoring system, where perfect 10 scores don't exist. In elite scoring, routines are scored with both an execution score out of 10. 000 and a difficulty score, which comprises of the moves and skills shown.