ESPN aired the main broadcast of the college gymnastics national championship on ABC over the weekend. The broadcast was intentionally catered to the more casual fans, which created a controversy amongst the true gymheads because Minnesota was not shown as often.
The Golden Gophers did not hold back their thoughts about “The Worldwide Leader in Sports.”
Most college gymnastics meets are pretty even in their coverage throughout the entire rotation. That was not the case at the national championships. It was extremely lopsided.
Minnesota finished fourth at the NCAA gymnastics championships.
The University of Minnesota had a remarkable gymnastics season. The Gophers were ranked No. 15 in the country during the preseason, behind powerhouse programs like UCLA, Auburn, Alabama, Utah, Georgia, Stanford, Kentucky and Michigan State.
They went on to finish the regular season at 12-4 with seven wins and two losses in the Big Ten. That included ranked wins over No. 22 Iowa, No. 10 Arkansas, No. 5 Michigan, No. 24 Iowa, No. 16 Penn State, No. 11 Michigan State and No. 20 Iowa with losses only to No. 5 Utah, Nebraska, No. 18 North Carolina and No. 5 UCLA but it was still not enough to finish inside the top-12.
The postseason was even more impressive.
Minnesota upset No. 4, No. 5 (twice), No. 9, No. 10 (twice), No. 11 and No. 12, and the Big 4 Champions, during an unbelievable Cinderella run to the gymnastics equivalent of the Final Four. It ended the program’s 49-year nationals streak as the lowest seed to EVER make the Four on the Floor.
Despite this incredible story, ESPN showed only 14 of the Gophers’ 24 routines during the championships on ABC. The network broadcast 22 of LSU and Oklahoma’s routines and 21 of Florida’s.
Final rotation breakdown: pic.twitter.com/pF2RqDlqnC
— Caroline Price (@carolineoprice) April 20, 2026
As you could imagine, Minnesota and its fans were not happy with the lopsided coverage. The official team account for Gophers gymnastics posted about the discrepancy and tagged ESPN.
Even the social team was unable to post clips for fans on social media because the routines did not air. Fans could only watch 14 routines in total unless they were at the championship meet as a spectator unless they paid for a specific team-only feed on ESPN+.
Thanks for your support. We competed in 16 meets this year. In only one of them (Saturday), our fans weren’t able to see every routine.
Since they weren’t on the broadcast, our social team wasn’t able to clip them and put them on social either.
Our friends and families are hosting watching parties at their homes or restaurants. They want to watch the main broadcast and not sit with their side tablet on a separate stream they had to pay for.
This is so easily fixable. We were in third place after the Four on the Floor third rotation. Just like we were in third place in the regional semis, regional finals and national semifinals before coming back to get second.
Good thing those broadcasts didn’t give up on us, would’ve missed one heck of a show.
— @GopherWGym/X
Minnesota did not hide its frustration.
Oklahoma ultimately won the national championship, followed by LSU and Florida. The Golden Gophers placed fourth for the best finish in program history after a remarkable run.
ESPN did not feature the Gophers on the broadcast as often as other programs on purpose.
Gymnastics fans, even beyond those with ties to Minnesota, were frustrated by the lack of equal coverage on the television broadcast. ESPN does not care.
It gave the following statement to Front Office Sports:
“The way in which we present a quad meet has shifted so we can tell the story of the championship as the competition develops.”
The goal was to make the broadcast of such a complex sport as simple as possible for viewers at home. It was catered to the casuals in an effort to grow the sport and viewership.
Think of it like The Masters. If only three golfers are in contention for the green jacket on Sunday, the expected fourth-place finisher does not get as much screen time as the others unless he makes a sudden move to get back in the mix. That is essentially what happened to Minnesota.
The Gophers were at one point in third place but they faded back to fourth and got less time on camera. ESPN wanted to feature the programs that were best positioned to win a national championship as the weekend continued. It was incredibly close between LSU and Oklahoma. They got more coverage for that reason.