ESPN Defends NCAA Gymnastics Broadcast After Minnesota Backlash

After the Minnesota women’s gymnastics team blasted ESPN on social media for not broadcasting enough of the team’s routines at Sunday’s 2026 NCAA championships, the network told Front Office Sports that the coverage was aimed at catering to casual fans.

“The way in which we present a quad meet has shifted so we can tell the story of the championship as the competition develops,” an ESPN spokesperson said. 

On the main broadcast of the championships, which aired on ABC under ESPN branding, only 14 of Minnesota’s 24 routines were shown, according to data from Forbes. By comparison, the network broadcast 22 of Oklahoma and LSU’s routines, as well as 21 of Florida’s routines.

During and after the championships, the official Minnesota women’s gymnastics X/Twitter account made three different posts referencing this discrepancy. First, it wrote “Split screen must be broken?” while tagging ESPN. Following the competition, the Gophers addressed it once more.

“Our fans tune in from all over the world to watch and they get shown 60% of our routines,” the program’s social media account wrote. “How can we make the National Championship and this happens?”

ESPN told FOS that it prioritized covering the overall team battle and teams contending for the title to meet its goal of “making a sport as complex as gymnastics accessible to all viewers.” Minnesota, which finished fourth overall, ranked as high as third throughout the competition. Oklahoma won the title by defeating runners-up LSU by just 0.0875 points, while Florida finished third.

Though there was a separate team feed on ESPN+ for just LSU and Minnesota (and another one for Oklahoma and Florida), the Gophers—who qualified for the Final Four for the first time in program history—were not satisfied.

“Our friends and families are hosting watching parties at their homes or restaurants,” Minnesota wrote in an X/Twitter post Monday. “They want to watch the main broadcast and not sit with their side tablet on a separate stream they had to pay for.”

Minnesota called the issue “easily fixable,” noting that the primary broadcasts for its other 15 competitions this past season showed the team’s every routine. The Gophers were primarily televised on Big Ten Network, Big Ten Plus, and ESPN+ throughout the 2026 season.

ABC has broadcast the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships for the last six seasons. This year’s championship peaked at 1.7 million viewers, the highest in the event’s history.

ESPN told FOS that it “[appreciated] the passion and feedback of the gymnastics community” amidst a “continued commitment” to growing the sport.