Ahead of the Sprouts Collegiate Quad, LSU Tigers gymnastics head coach Jay Clark gave his thoughts on the importance of the curtain-raising event. The Tigers will face reigning NCAA champions Oklahoma, the Jordan Chiles-led UCLA, and the University of Utah in the event.
The 2026 Sprouts Collegiate Quad will kick off the 2026 women’s gymnastics season and will feature a number of teams that are expected to be in contention for the NCAA title this year. The event will take place on Saturday, January 10, and will be televised nationally in the United States on ABC.
LSU Tigers Head Coach on the Importance of Sprouts Collegiate Quad
All the competing teams will be eager to lay down an early marker at the Sprouts Collegiate Quad. During his pre-event press conference, LSU HC Clark shared his thoughts on the event and discussed how it could help increase the popularity of gymnastics in the country.
“For fans, it’s amazing… it’s incredible. It’s great for our sport when you can put those teams on the same floor right out of the gate,” he said in a press conference. “It’s sort of these neutral site beginning of season football games that you see around the country, same kind of thing. Although I don’t know if this site is very neutral. But I do think that it’s great for the sport, it’s great for the fans, it’s great for our exposure with ABC putting it on prime time on Saturday afternoon and it continues to help grow our footprint.”
“As an organization, coaches wise, we’re super grateful to ESPN and the partnership they have engaged in with us is tremendous for the growth of our sport. So I have a lot of gratitude for that because we had a lot of years where we couldn’t garner that kind of attention.”
The 2026 NCAA women’s gymnastics season will air across various ESPN channels, with ABC also set to air the NCAA Women’s Championship.
LSU Head Coach Outlines Goals for the Season
The Tigers managed to make history by winning the 2024 NCAA Women’s Championship. They were eliminated in the semifinals last year and lost their crown to the Oklahoma Sooners.
Coach Clark is determined to get back on top this year. But he also knows that they cannot afford to become “outcome oriented” and must stick to the process.
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“For us internally, it’s a starting point. Certainly we want to win it, we want to win everything. But also, don’t let it define [ourselves]. If we become so outcome oriented, we’re going to be frustrated more often than not.”
“So we’re going to stick to a process that we think this team needs to be in and we’re going to pace ourselves accordingly, and do our best to be as healthy and fresh as we can possibly be the later we get in the season.”
In a WCGA Preseason Coaches poll (via USA Gymnastics), LSU was ranked second in the preseason rankings, only behind Oklahoma.
Tushar Bahl
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