Last week, we released our annual preseason poll, where 13 College Gym News contributors produced what they believe to be the top 36 teams for the 2025 season. Then we did some basic math and came out with our overall ranking. In this week’s roundtable, we’re talking about our decisions—why we put some teams where we did, didn’t include others, and any differences we think we may see from what we ranked in the real thing on Road to Nationals. To see each individual contributor’s top 36, click here.
Did you use any sort of methodology when ranking your top 36?
Elizabeth: I try not to overthink or use too much data when coming up with my top 36 because in my opinion, that can easily go south or not tell the whole story. Instead, I looked at last year’s final rankings, considered graduated routines and newcomers’ potential, then rearranged from there. Last year there were quite a number of postseason upsets, so my job was a bit more difficult than usual.
Julianna: I looked at a few different aspects when going through and selecting my top 36 for the 2024-25 season. Mainly, I used the top 36 from the end of the 2024 season and then made small adjustments along the way. I took into account major gains and losses for each team, as well as the teams that had the…
