(GYM) Gymnastics 2024 - 2025

New Scholarship limits for D1 Men's and Women's Gymnastics:

New Scholarship/Roster Limits for 2025-2026 Filed in Landmark Settlement Case - CollegeGymFans.com

This is a big deal. I'm not sure how I've missed it until now.

Friday, 26 July 2024 22:50

New Scholarship/Roster Limits for 2025-2026 Filed in Landmark Settlement Case

The NCAA and leaders of the Big 5 Conferences have filed an important document in the proposed settlement for the three landmark court cases. This filing proposes to limit roster sizes and allow scholarship up to the full roster limits for all sports. For gymnastics, the new roster size will be 20 for both men and women. Currently, neither sport has a roster size limit. Women's gymnastics has been limited to 12 scholarships in Division 1 and 3.3 equivalent scholarships (split among many) for the men. Now, each sport will be able to fund up to 20 spots, but no more. The settlement also covers revenue sharing and enforcement. The agreement also attempts to reign in the current unbounded NIL market and third-party collectives. It must be approved by the court, and potentially, supported by federal legislation. If approved, it should provide for a chaotic spring transfer season and disrupt the current 2025 and 2026 recruiting process.

I was wondering about Oklahoma taking 7 gymnasts in their 2026 class. The Sooners are currently one over the limit at 21 so KJ Kindler likely knows someone is going off of a scholarship.

Under the new scholarship rules, UF can add 4 more gymnasts for a total of 7 commitments if CJR can find that many who are good enough to be Florida Gators. Simone Rose made #16 on the 2027 season roster.

 

The "super close teammates" mentioned by Jaime Santos below are Simone Rose who committed to UF on 10/11 and Jayla Hang. Both are from the same gym in Seattle in the Pacific Northwest. We'll have to wait to see how that works out as Jayla Hang is still taking visits and is at UCLA this weekend.

UF has had good success in getting gymnasts from the Seattle area. Jocelyn Sasson, the 5th ranked 5-star gymnast in UF's 2025 class, was training with Ascend Gymnastics in Auburn, Washington, a Seattle suburb, before she transferred to Brandy Johnson's Gym in Clermont, Florida:

Jocelyn Sasson (@jocelyn.sasson) • Instagram photos and videos

The Medal Count
@TheMedalCount_
In the last 5 days the Florida Gators have successfully recruited: Kieryn Finnell ==> Member of the 2024 Pacific Rim team Dulcy Caylor ==> Qualifier to the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials Simone Rose ==> Member of 2024 Pacific Rim team AND a qualifier to the U.S. Olympic Trials







4:46 PM · Oct 11, 202



Jaime Santos
@Jaime_ASantos
Oct 11
Jayla Hang was at the same Florida recruiting weekend as Kieryn and Dulcy. AND her super close teammate has now committed to Florida. Hmm...

 

Until a few minutes ago, there were still three 5-star gymnasts left available in the College Gym News rating system:

Jayla Hang - Hoping for a commitment to UF, see above.

Alicia Zhou - From Love, Texas and has visited Georgia and Auburn.

Simone Brown - From southeast North Carolina. She committed a short time ago to Clemson. She visited Georgia, Clemson, Denver, and Arkansas. Apparently, she injured her knee last February which likely accounts for her not having the type of visit list you'd expect to see with such a highly rated gymnast. Good for Simone. She gets to stay close to home and gets to help establish Clemson as an up-and-coming program.

This leaves the two 5-star gymnasts available. I hope Jayla Hang pulls the trigger for UF leaving just Alicia Zhou available as the last 5-star gymnast.

The recruiting classes are filling out. At last count, there are only nine 4-star uncommitted gymnasts. The nine includes Raeya Linton whose last visit was on 10/4 to UF.

EDIT:

Clemson had a big day on 10/15. The Tigers picked up 5-star Simone Brown and 4-star Ayla Miller. Clemson's 2027 season roster is up to 15 gymnasts.

Clemson ranked #30 at the end of the 2024 regular season was invited to the Gainesville Regional. The Tigers had a close loss to #36 Iowa State in the play in meet failing to advance to regional round 1. Clemson is definitely taking a step forward to presenting well as a new program just launched a few years ago. The Tigers have only had two seasons of performing, 2023 and 2024.

 

Dr. Sam, PhD
@DrSam_PhD

Baby Gators Simone, Dulcy, and Kieryn practicing their chomps:

(3) Dr. Sam, PhD on X: "Baby Gators Simone, Dulcy, and Kieryn practicing their chomps https://t.co/atzrMdZfkj" / X (twitter.com)

Hope Jayla Hang will be in a picture with the other 3 Baby Gators soon. All three are in Simone's and Jayla's home Seattle gym practicing their Gator Chomp. We've got 3 Baby Gators on hand to bring Jayla along with them. I hope we don't have to wait through 2 more visit weekends for Jayla.

 

UF hasn't announced the 2025 schedule yet, but I've been able to piece together 1/2 of the schedule:

January 17 at LSU
January 24 Georgia
February 2 at West Virginia/Utah (Tri-Meet)
February 14 Auburn
March 7 at Alabama

Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Oklahoma haven't released their schedules yet either.

The remaining UF SEC schedule should set up with UF at Arkansas, Kentucky at UF, Missouri at UF, and UF at Oklahoma. That would give an SEC schedule with 4 home and 4 away meets. At this point if this is correct, just need to plug in the dates.

To say UF's SEC schedule is tough is an understatement presuming UF visits both LSU and Oklahoma, but that's the breaks. It's excellent preparation for post season.

Perks of being the national champion, both UF and Oklahoma visit LSU.

UF had a 10-week schedule in 2024 so there is likely an additional out of conference meet as well. The tri-meet at West Virginia including Utah should be a nationally interesting meet.

 

Looking ahead to the 10/18 recruiting weekend, it will be interesting to see if UF brings anyone in for visits. It's the last chance to have a big weekend of recruiting surrounded by the Kentucky at UF football game.

The issue is after reviewing the 4-star gymnasts still available, I don't see any other than Raeya Linton who visited on 10/4 who are good candidates to become Florida Gators. I think UF's 2026 class will be the 3 committed gymnasts and Jayla Hang and/or Raeye Linton if they want to become Gators, a class of 3 and potentially up to 5.

Alicia Zhou, the last 5-star gymnast available, is the only other gymnast I think UF would consider. Her issue I'm concerned with is she took visits to Auburn and Georgia and stopped taking visits. However, she didn't publicize the visits on her Instagram account or publicly thank the schools and her student gymnast hosts.

JMO, UF is in a wait and see mode on Hang and Linton. If they don't come through for UF, there is always the active and growing transfer portal for a couple of gymnasts for the 2027 season.

UF has Selena Harris-Miranda who transferred in from UCLA for the 2025 and 2026 seasons. She was the #1 recruit in the 2022 class, the same year UF brought in Lori Brubach, Kayla DiCello, and Morgan Hurd.

 

Recruiting News for Saturday, 10/19:

Jayla Hang, the #2 rated gymnast in the 2026 class who visited UF on 10/4 has scheduled a commitment announcement at 5:15 PM ET. She will be picking from her 3 visited schools:

9/27 Stanford
10/4 Florida
10/11 UCLA

Stanford picked up commitments on 10/17 and 10/18. Either they are on a roll with more good news coming or they have made moves knowing Jayla isn't coming.

UCLA had the last visit much like they did with Tiana Sumanasekera last year, my favorite gymnast in the class of 2025. I do worry about this happening again.

Jayla's close friend and same gym mate Simone Rose committed to UF on 10/11. UF's three 2026 committed gymnasts are in Seattle offering Jayla support for a UF decision. Hopefully, we'll be welcoming our newest Baby Gator this afternoon.

 

I watched on Instagram. It was a beautiful announcement for Jayla. Her gym mates turned out for her. They had cupcakes and she wouldn't announce until the colors inside the cupcake was revealed, orange and blue.

Jayla said she's going to Florida. They started playing the Gator fight song and then proceeded to teach everyone in the gym the Gator Chomp, right over left.

I think UF is still in the running for #13 ranked Raeya Linton too. She visited UF on October 4.

UF's 4 current commits are all top 15, three 5 stars plus one 4 stars. Raeye Linton would make it 5 of the top 15 if/when she commits.

Until today, I had ranked Oklahoma as the #1 2026 class with two 5 stars and five 4 stars. I have UF on top now. Adding Linton will cement UF at #1 on top of the 2026 class rankings.

 

Jayla Hang's Commitment Statement:

I am so incredibly excited to announce I have verbally committed to the UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA on a full athletic scholarship to continue my academic and athletic career!

This recruiting journey has been so rewarding. A special thank you to all the coaches that reached out and took their time to get to know me. I feel so honored and this whole process feels so unbelievable. Thank you for the time and patience you all have shown me.

Sending my thank you to my parents, grandparents and my siblings for supporting me every step of the way on my gymnastics journey. Never doubting me and always cheering for me. You have made so many sacrifices to get me here and i am extremely blessed to have the most supportive family. Everything you have done has gotten me to where i am today and i am forever grateful.

Thank you to every single one of my past coaches and of course my present coaches (Cale & Steph) for shaping me into the person, gymnast i am today. Your dedication and love for this sport is unmatched. I truly wouldn’t be where i am without your encouragement and relentless reassurances. Also, thank you to my friends and teammates from every level who are always showing me constant support throughout this whole process!

And of course the biggest thank you to my @pacificreign family! You guys are the most caring, fun, and encouraging family that shows me an abundance of outpouring love. I’m so thankful to be training in an environment where i am always supported no matter what. You have given me the belief that anything is possible! i will forever cherish that! I never really envisioned this day to be here, so I’m still trying to soak it all in. To other girls in a position where things get hard, don’t give up, because anything is possible!

To @jenny_a_rowland @coachowenfield @adrianburde and @jeremyjamesmiranda for being so welcoming! I truly cannot thank you enough for believing in me as a person and a gymnast. You’ve shown me what @gatorsgym can offer and i cannot wait to be a Gator!

 

From CollegeGymFans.com:

Saturday, 19 October 2024 14:44

2026-2027: Hang to Florida

Jayla Hang, a senior elite national team member from Pacific Reign, has committed to a full scholarship at Florida. She is part of the class of 2026. Hang placed 16th AA at the 2024 XFinity US Championships. Earlier in the season, she won gold in the AA at the Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships. As a junior in 2023, she placed 4th AA at the junior World Championships.

 

Rumor over on Tiger Dropping Gymnastics Recruiting from a well-connected poster. Hezley Rivera is rumored to be deferring LSU until after the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics which means she will likely not be performing for LSU until the 2029 collegiate season.

After repeatedly watching Shilese Jones melt away from college team gymnastics and education along with both Kayla DiCello and Skye Blakely being injured in Olympic trials after deferrals, I hope none in UF's 2026 class defers, but deferral is a possibility when you recruit highly ranked gymnasts.

I hope our gymnasts follow what Leanne Wong did going to World Championships and earning a traveling spot on the team to the Paris Olympics. Leanne was also on the travel team to the Tokyo Olympics.

 

Deferral may be why she ended up at LSU. CJR may have wanted Hezly to come in for a year like Kayla DiCello did. Multiple years deferring makes no sense.

UF was thought to be in the lead for Hezley. This rumor on deferral may be why she is committed to LSU instead. CJR may have said she wanted Hezley to follow the path of Kayla DiCello who came in as a freshman and then deferred for one year to train elite for the Paris Olympics.

UF may have dodged a bullet as I've heard from several sources that Hezley's father is opinionated and heavily involved.

 

I feel greedy in recruiting.

Under the new team gymnasts cap, UF can have 20 on full scholarship and no more than 20 on the roster.

While I feel good about the likelihood of UF eventually receiving a commitment from Raeya Linton, 4 stars and rated 13th nationally and in contact with Jayla Hang on Instagram, there is still one remaining 5-star gymnast taking visits:

USA Gymnastics | Alicia Zhou

Alicia Zhou 5 stars out of Love Gym in San Antonio, Texas. Alicia's current visit list:

Georgia 9/6
Auburn 9/27
Denver 10/18

Alicia has kept her recruiting confidential except that she is taking visits, so nobody really knows where she stands.

I hope CJR has contacted Alicia about visiting. If UF were to attract both Raeya Linton and Alicia Zhou, UF would have 6 commitments in the 2026 class, 6 of the top 15 gymnasts nationally, 19 slots filled on the 2027 season roster, and would still have a roster spot if a transfer wants to board the UF Express.

I'm greedy. Go Get'm CJR!