OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA – JANUARY 11: Kailin Chio of the LSU Tigers celebrates within the Sprouts … Extra
On the morning of the 2025 NCAA Girls’s Gymnastics Semifinals, ESPN introduced that the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad will return to the Maverik Heart in West Valley Metropolis, Utah, in January 2026.
The meet will host two quad meets on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. Session I’ll air stay on ABC at 4 p.m. ET, with Session II slated for primetime on ESPN2 at 8 or 9 p.m.
“We’re thrilled to return to Utah for the third annual Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad,” stated ESPN Occasions director Kristen Shaver. The occasion sponsor states a shared dedication to the competitors’s objectives.
“Sprouts is on a mission to empower ladies each on and off the mat, whether or not it’s fueling efficiency via vitamin or partnering with organizations who’re altering the sport in ladies’s sports activities,” added Nick Konat, president and COO.
The 2025 version, held in Oklahoma Metropolis, drew nationwide consideration as one of many premier regular-season occasions of the NCAA gymnastics season. It was additionally probably the most aggressive, with all eight collaborating packages occurring to seem on this 12 months’s postseason competitors.
5 of these eight groups will compete in immediately’s nationwide semifinals, with defending Nationwide Champion No. 1 LSU, No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 4 Utah, No. 5 UCLA, and No. 8 Michigan State all bidding for a nationwide title. These 5 will be part of No. 5 California, No. 9 Kentucky, and 2021 NCAA Champion Michigan on the 2026 roster.
“To have all eight groups make a postseason look with 5 advancing to the Nationwide Championship speaks volumes to the stature of this early-season occasion,” Shaver stated. “We imagine strongly within the energy of girls’s sports activities and are dedicated to furthering the expansion of gymnastics.”
Primetime Manufacturing Worth
After garnering groundbreaking viewership numbers in its 2024 and 2025 editions, the meet will return to primetime tv in 2026. ESPN reviews that the primary two years of the occasion stand because the “most-watched stay, common season collegiate gymnastics meets ever” aired on ESPN platforms.
Whereas the meet doesn’t function a postseason qualifier, organizers argue its execution units the occasion aside from different regular-season meets.
“The groups at ESPN engaged on the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad deal with it as if it have been the nationwide championship,” stated Hannah McSwain, an Affiliate Supervisor for ESPN Occasions.
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“From the rostrum and the gear the athletes compete on to the on-air broadcast that includes our postseason expertise – we purpose for the occasion to have a postseason really feel at the start of the season.”
Upon launching the occasion and gymnastics as a brand new sports activities class for ESPN Occasions in 2024, McSwain says the workforce’s first 12 months was “a studying expertise” as they familiarized themselves with the game.
“We familiarized ourselves with the game, together with the nuance, precision, and keenness,” she attests. “We work with our skilled manufacturing workforce, rent two meet administrators with greater than 40 years mixed expertise, and search enter from the collaborating faculties to make sure we’re constructing the most effective occasion for these athletes.”
Development of the Sport Takes Heart Stage
The occasion’s organizers key that the meet’s success is a part of a better sample in ladies’s gymnastics and ladies’s athletics – one that can play out at this week’s championship.
“We’ve seen with lots of progress sports activities, particularly ladies’s sports activities,” stated Mallory Kenny, Director of Programming. “If you happen to create a constant programming technique – equivalent to SEC Community’s Friday Night time Heights – and discover new methods to showcase the tales of those unbelievable athletes, followers is not going to solely come to look at, however they’re prone to return.”
Kenny and the ESPN occasions workforce have the info to assist their dedication to rising the game. “In solely three years, we’ve got practically doubled the programming hours of girls’s gymnastics throughout our platforms, making the game extra accessible to extra followers.” As for ESPN’s profitable technique, Kenny credit the dedication to outreach and accessibility for followers.
Our manufacturing workforce and commentators do a fantastic job of creating these occasions accessible to each the die-hard gymnastics fan and the informal gymnastics fan who could also be tuning in for the primary time,” she provides.
“Via our new NCAA media rights settlement and our relationship with our convention companions, we’ve got much more choices when it comes to new occasions and new storytelling alternatives inside this sport.” ESPN’s authentic content material sequence, Recreation On, straight responds to those budding alternatives.
Broadcast Innovation And Upgrades
AUBURN, ALABAMA – FEBRUARY 2: (EDITORS NOTE: That is an in-camera a number of publicity picture) Anna Hill … Extra
“One of many keys to additional enlargement of girls’s gymnastics protection is increasing our viewers and connecting with youthful followers via marquee occasions, enhanced manufacturing, and activating throughout our digital and social platforms,” Kenny says.
This Saturday’s ABC broadcast of the nationwide championship is a main instance – and it’s just the start. Amanda Gifford, ESPN’s Senior Vice President of Manufacturing, attested to the meticulous execution of Thursday’s semifinals and Saturday’s finals.
ESPN is “all the time trying to increase the bar in our presentation,” Gifford shares. “We expect there are lots of alternatives concerning innovation with gymnastics.” In 2024, the ESPN occasions workforce debuted a brand new scoring tower to show outcomes, dubbed a “sport changer” by coaches, media, and followers.
This weekend’s broadcast will introduce a brand new characteristic designed to focus on the gymnasts’ explosive energy and approach: four-dimensional replay, out there for vault and uneven bars.
“Every equipment has 30 cameras surrounding it and can assist us show the true athleticism and dynamic performances of those gymnasts,” Gifford says.
The brand new addition to 2025’s broadcast is one among many steps supposed to extend accessibility and pleasure for viewers. For brand new viewers, “gymnastics is difficult,” Gifford and her workforce admit.
“It’s on us to coach the viewer and discover methods to make understanding the game as simple as watching it. As the game continues to develop, and we discover new methods to make gymnastics accessible and out there, we’ve got to proceed to evolve in our storytelling and presentation.”
Gymnastics protection has come a great distance, and ESPN’s work is not any exception. Gifford tells me that witnessing the game’s progress has been “particular.”
“We’ve gone from a small variety of stay televised meets to greater than 70 – aided by the launches of each SEC Community and ACC Community – and grown our protection to incorporate a number of convention championships, NCAA regionals, a pre-championship preview present on ABC, ESPN Occasions’ creation of the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad, and extra,” she shares.
The workforce that works on this sport is so enthusiastic about gymnastics,” she provides. “Some are lifelong followers, former gymnasts or dancers, or have simply grown to like the game through the years they’ve labored on it at ESPN. Coming in new to the game this 12 months, the vitality of the ESPN workforce behind the scenes is thrilling to be a part of, and I believe that interprets to our protection.”
How To Tune In: Fort Value and Past
Followers can witness the innovation for themselves, starting with the 2 nationwide semifinals on Thursday, April 17, broadcast stay on ESPN2. The Nationwide Championship, dubbed ‘The 4 On The Ground,” shall be broadcast stay on ABC on Saturday, April 19. Detailed scheduling and streaming could be discovered here.
Full particulars concerning timing and commentary for the 2026 Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate quad shall be introduced at a later date, with tickets occurring sale this Fall. Followers wanting to ebook their journeys can safe pre-sale entry by signing up for the occasion mailing checklist at www.sproutscollegiatequad.com/tickets.
