The Road to Fort Worth runs through Baton Rouge and at the end of tonight’s Regional Final, we will know the first two teams advancing to the 2026 NCAA Championships.
At 6 p.m. ET on ESPN+ LSU, Stanford, Michigan and Clemson will face off to claim two tickets to Fort Worth.
A snapshot of history: LSU has been a consistent presence at the NCAA Championships, winning the title in 2024. Over the past decade, LSU has reached the NCAA Championships every year except 2022. Stanford last advanced to nationals in 2024, finishing fifth. Before that, its most recent team appearance came in 2016. Michigan, which won the national title in 2021, is likely encouraged after advancing to the regional finals for the first time since 2023. The Wolverines last appeared at the NCAA Championships in 2022. Clemson, in just its third year as a program, is competing in the regional finals for the first time and is seeking its first NCAA Championships berth.
So what needs to happen for each of these teams to have a shot?
LSU
Host LSU is heavily favored to advance, barring any major mistakes. The Tigers enter the postseason as the No. 2 team in the nation and the only team ranked in the top three on every event. LSU also posted the highest score across all four regional sites in the semifinals with a 198.375.
With a home crowd behind them and competing in Olympic order — a familiar setup in Baton Rouge, starting on vault and finishing on floor — it’s hard to imagine the Tigers not getting the job done, even if they aren’t 100%. The Tigers’ biggest area for improvement after the semifinals is vault landings. Kailin Chio has been consistent on her Yurchenko 1½, sticking 11 of 13 vaults this season, but she is the only gymnast the team can reliably count on for a stick. The lineup has significant potential, and if LSU can get sticks from Amari Drayton and Kaliya Lincoln while maintaining its usual standard on the other three events, they will be difficult to beat. The approach for LSU in the regional final is straightforward: do nothing more and nothing less. Their usual should be enough to get the job done.
Stanford
Stanford is the No. 2 seed in Baton Rouge and ranked No. 7 nationally. They are favored to advance based on their consistency throughout the season and their scoring potential, having posted a high of 198.150 in February. The Cardinal opens on bars, one of its strongest events, highlighted by some of the cleanest lines in the country. The formula for success includes sticking landings early to build a cushion and maintaining momentum.
Stanford has shown some instability on beam and vault at both the ACC Championships and in the semifinals. In the semifinals there were uncharacteristic mistakes on beam from Levi Jung-Ruivivar and Anna Roberts. Roberts and Summer Gronski are capable of sticking their vaults, which could add valuable tenths. If Stanford performs to its potential, they will be dangerous.
What the Cardinal do not want is a close meet heading into the final rotation. They will finish on their lowest-ranked event, vault (No. 16 nationally), while the other teams rotate to their strengths: LSU on floor (No. 1), Michigan on beam (No. 5) and Clemson on bars (No. 14), where Clemson secured its first ACC championship two weeks ago. The motto for Stanford is to go big on bars in rotation 1 and do not let their foot off the gas.
Michigan
Michigan comes in as the No. 3 seed and is guaranteed to achieve its highest finish since 2023, regardless of the outcome. However, if they want to play spoiler in Baton Rouge, the Wolverines will likely need their best meet of the season.
The story for Michigan this season has been consistency — they’ve been ranked in the top 10 nationally all year and are one of only eight teams to reach this point in the season without counting any scores below 9.5. The biggest factor that has kept Michigan from breaking into the mid-197 range has been a lack of stuck landings on vault and bars. They’ve had moments of greatness from every member of the team on those two events throughout the season (6th year senior Reyna Guggino has been coming in clutch with her stuck vaults) but have yet to produce a lineup with four or more stuck landings in the same meet.
It is crucial for the Wolverines to dial in on those events if they want to keep any hope of advancing alive. The good news for Michigan is that they finish on their best event, beam, where they are ranked fifth nationally. In the semifinals, Michigan started on beam but did not hit their potential and then struggled to gain momentum as the competition progressed. That entire lineup, starting with Sophie Parenti through to the 1-2 punch that is Kayli Boozer and Carly Bauman are capable of going 9.9+, but only Bauman hit the 9.9 mark Thursday. If they can stay within a few tenths of the top two teams heading into the final rotation, they will be in the perfect position to strike.
The motto for Michigan going into this regional final should be “compete like you have nothing to lose.” Although they are capable of it, nobody is expecting the Wolverines to advance, so if they can embrace this mindset and compete freely, they just may shock the world.
Clemson
Clemson rounds out the Baton Rouge Regional as the No. 4 seed and is coming in hot after winning the ACC Championship and advancing to the regional final for the first time in program history. The Tigers are guaranteed to achieve their highest finish in program history and, similar to Michigan, should approach this competition with a “nothing to lose” mentality.
Clemson is also one of only eight teams to reach this point in the season without counting a score below 9.5, which speaks to their consistency. However, the Tigers will need to increase the number of stuck landings across the board to keep pace with the big scores expected from LSU and Stanford if they want any shot at advancing.
In the semifinals, the Tigers had three stuck landings on bars and only one stuck vault. And while they had five out of six stuck landings on beam, errors on the event kept scores below the 9.85 range, which realistically won’t be enough to reach Fort Worth.
The goal for Clemson is to compete like they have nothing to lose so that, if the door opens, they can capitalize. One fun thing we’ll be watching for from Clemson is whether Brie Clark goes for the Biles I — this would be the perfect opportunity to go for it!