If the first two weeks of the 2023 season established the immense potential of the nation’s best programs, Week 3 exposed their vulnerabilities: Oklahoma and Auburn were the only top 10 teams to improve on their Week 2 totals while five others scored below 197. Perhaps more significantly, this weekend highlighted the ever-increasing parity across the rankings, conferences and divisions, as a number of historically mid-tier programs outperformed higher-ranked teams.
There’s naturally going to be some shuffling in the power rankings as teams experiment with lineups in pursuit of their ideal six, and this week is no exception with a blend of old and new faces in the mix. A third weekend of competition gives us a bit more to go off of, but since hard data is scarce so early in the season (and scores rarely tell the whole story, anyway), we’re taking other variables — like skill difficulty and competitive stakes — into consideration when honing our picks.
Note: For the purpose of these rankings, we define competitive weeks as Monday through Sunday. Gymnasts who compete after Sunday will be considered in the following week’s power rankings.
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