All 5 Big Ten Teams Selected for 2026 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships
Illinois set to host NCAA Championships April 17-18
ROSEMONT, Ill. – All five Big Ten men’s gymnastics teams have been selected to compete at the 2026 NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championships, slated for April 17-18. Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Penn State are among 12 teams selected to participate in the event, hosted by the University of Illinois.
Big Ten champion Michigan leads the list of conference participants, sporting the second-highest qualifying score this season (324.250) The Big Ten also claims spots four through seven on the qualifying list with Nebraska (320.963), Ohio State (317.863), Penn State (315.375), and Illinois (315.075).
Oklahoma owns the top qualifying score (328.150), while Stanford’s score of 322.988 is good for third. California (314.913), Greenville (311.325), Navy (310.850), Army (309.963), and Springfield (308.500) complete the list of 12 team participants.
The field also includes individual event qualifiers from Air Force, Simpson, and Air Force.
The NCAA Championships will begin April 17 (2 and 8 p.m. ET) at the State Farm Center on the campus of the University of Illinois with two pre-qualifying sessions consisting of six teams each. The top three finishing teams in each session will advance to the NCAA finals on April 18 (7 p.m. ET).
In addition, the top three all-around competitors not on an advancing team, plus the top three individuals in each event not already advancing as a member of a team or in the all-around competition, will also take part in the April 19 finals.
Friday’s qualifiers will be broadcast on ESPN+, with Saturday’s finals slated to air on ESPN2.
Current Big Ten programs have won 40 NCAA men’s gymnastics national championships since the meet was first held in 1938, with the most recent Big Ten national champion being Michigan in 2025. Three former conference programs also won one NCAA title each as members of the Big Ten — Chicago (1938), Michigan State (1958) and Iowa (1969).
Last year, Michigan claimed its seventh NCAA title, its first since 2014, earning a slim 0.163-point margin over runner-up Stanford after Paul Juda’s final vault. Nebraska, Penn State, and Illinois also advanced to the finals, finishing fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively.
Juda claimed gold on the parallel bars, while Ohio State’s Kameron Nelson won the vault title. Fellow Wolverine Fred Richard also scored his second All-Around gold medal.