With college students going back to school, that means gymnastics season is right around the corner. The new 2026 NCAA Gymnastics Rules and Modifications are out, and we highlighted the most notable changes below. Interestingly, the vast majority of the changes have little to do with how the sport is actually evaluated or performed and everything to do with the roles, responsibilities, and behavior of judges and coaches.
General: Judge-Related
The most significant change this year is that either judge—the panel judge or the chief judge—can now call a judge’s conference. Previously, only the chief judge could do so, which meant that if the chief judge miscalculated a score, start value, or final tally, a panel judge had no authority to challenge the mistake. While this update may lead to more conferences overall, it should also result in more accurate scoring and fewer impossible start values or totals. In fact, an impossible score—for example, a 9.95 on a Yurchenko full with a step on the landing—is now considered valid grounds for a conference. Conferences may also be initiated for scores out of range, misapplied “up to the level” (UTL) deductions, or incorrectly input scores.
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