With all of the big names changing teams, the 2026 NCAA Gymnastics championship is firmly up for grabs with multiple teams in the mix.

Morgan Price and the Arkansas Razorbacks

Morgan Price is no stranger to bright lights, but now she’ll take her talents to arguably the biggest stage in the sport — the SEC. Originally committed to Arkansas in high school,Price decided to compete for Fisk University and made history several times in her three years there. Fisk became the first HBCU to launch a gymnastics program in 2023 and while there, Morgan became the first HBCU gymnast to earn a perfect 10 and win a national title. She won six national titles in her three years at Fisk, sweeping the event titles at the WGNIC Nationals this year along with defending her 2024 All-Around title.

Now, Morgan joins her older sister, Frankie Price, a fan-favorite Gymback who is taking her fifth year for the 2026 season after being injured during her floor routine at this year’s regional meet. Morgan has the scores on all four events to compete in the All-Around for the Razorbacks, and will especially make an impact on bars and beam.

Price will be joined at Arkansas by San Jose State University transfer Madison Gustitus. Gustitus has three years of eligibility after spending her freshman year at SJSU, where she competed on bars, beam, and floor. Arkansas lost a lot of their depth on beam to graduation this year, so she should fill an immediate need there, while also joining a dynamic floor rotation anchored by Joscelyn Roberson and Frankie Price. She also brings a lot of Level 10 competitive experience, having competed at the Development Program Nationals and Nastia Liukin Cup and won events at the regional level.

Arkansas lost two athletes to the transfer portal this season — Chandler Buntin and Dakota Essenpreis. Essenpreis is returning to her home state of Missouri to compete for SEC rival Mizzou. The vault specialist competed at every meet this season, breaking 9.850 five times, including a career high 9.900. Buntin did not compete in her two years at Arkansas, but could be a strong depth piece on vault and bars at her new program, which she has yet to announce.

Madison Ulrich and Emily Innes to the LSU Tigers

Madison Ulrich competed the last two years for the Big 12’s Denver Pioneers. This year, Ulrich was named a three-time All American by the WCGA and qualified to the NCAA national championships as an all-around individual competitor. She has career highs of at least a 9.900 on all four events and regularly competed in the All-Around for Denver.

Ulrich was one of the hottest commodities in the portal this year, taking official visits at three high-profile schools — Louisiana State, Utah, and Oklahoma — before committing to LSU. LSU tasted glory last year with their first ever national championship, and Ulrich will be instrumental in their quest to reach that peak again. She’ll make a strong case to be a regular three-event competitor on bars, beam, and floor after ending the NCAA season ranked in the top 20 on beam and bars. She owns a career high 9.925 on vault, but LSU has a deep lineup on the event that she might not slot into.

Senior Emily Innes is trading one shade of purple for another as she joins the LSU Tigers after three seasons with the Washington Huskies. She qualified to regional competition this year as an individual competitor on floor and beam, earning a 9.750 on floor and a 9.800 on beam. Last season, she won the regional floor title with a career high 9.950.

Innes will bring stability and experience to a young LSU roster that saw 10 seniors graduate from the program this year. She should consistently make the floor and beam lineups and could contribute on vault as well. She competes a Yurchenko Full that has typically scored in the low-mid 9.800s at UW, but LSU has a strong lineup of Yurchenko 1.5s with higher scoring potential that they’re more likely to include on a regular basis. That said, Innes will at least provide depth on that event while competing regularly on two others.

eMjae Frazier to the Florida Gators

The first big splash in the transfer portal was the surprising news that eMjae Frazier would graduate early from Cal Berkeley and transfer as a graduate student for her final year of eligibility. Over a month after she announced that she would enter the portal, Frazier put the speculation to rest and announced that she would be taking her talents to the Florida Gators.

Frazier would have been a great pick-up for any team in the NCAA, but the Gators in particular will benefit from her poise and consistency. Before college, she was an elite gymnast for Team USA and represented the country internationally. As a sophomore, she broke the NCAA single season scoring record and has scored multiple perfect 10s on different events over her career. In her three years at Cal, Frazier racked up 10 All-American honors across the regular and post-season. She should immediately be competing in the all-around, but watch for her to make a huge impact on beam and floor, both events she holds a career-best 10.0 on.

Florida finished third in the SEC conference meet this year before a shocking meltdown on vault ended their search for a title in the national semi-finals. Frazier will join the Gators quest to maximize their potential next season alongside a strong incoming freshman class and returning stars Selena Harris-Miranda and Kayla DiCello. Frazier led Cal to the team silver medal in the 2024 National Championship, and she’s certainly hungry to return to the podium after Cal failed to qualify to Nationals this year.

Georgia departures

This season, Georgia had a bit of a renaissance under new head coaches Cecile Landi, formerly of World Champions Centre in Texas, and Ryan Roberts. After a strong regular season, Georgia faltered in SEC championships and then placed third in regional finals, failing to advance, but qualifying two individuals to nationals. After the conclusion of the season, three gymnasts announced their intent to transfer, including fan-favorite Naya Howard, who had been missing from the GymDogs’ regional lineups.

All three former GymDogs are moving to the Big Ten, with Sadie Jane Berry transferring to Ohio State, Alexis Czarrunchick heading to Maryland, and Naya Howard announcing her commitment to Michigan State.

Czarrunchick is headlining a large transfer class for Maryland with five athletes recommitting to the Terps so far. She’s joined by a pair of Bowling Green transfers in Megan Bingham and Katrina Mendez Abolnik, Aine Reade from New Hampshire, and Towson’s Chelsey Dennis. Czarrunchick will bolster Maryland’s vault lineup and contend for a spot on bars as well.

Naya Howard has one year of eligibility remaining and she’ll be spending it in East Lansing, Michigan. The Spartans advanced to their first National Championship since 1988 this year, finishing with the fifth-highest score in the semi-final field. Howard has scored at least a 9.900 on all four events and will bring solid experience to the beam lineup in particular and reliable depth on the other events.

Biggest winners in the NCAA Gymnastics transfer portal

Missouri

Missouri has gained three gymnasts from the portal so far and reloads after their historic third place finish at NCAAs this season. They show no signs of slowing down, even after graduating an incredible senior class headlined by Helen Hu and Amari Celestine. They bring in hometown vault specialist from Dakota Essenpreis from Arkansas, Sara Wabi from Illinois State, and Makayla Green from Illinois.

Wabi will spend her fifth year of eligibility as a graduate student at Mizzou. She competed on the uneven bars as an individual competitor at regionals this year after earning All-MIC (Midwest Independent Conference) First Team honors on floor, bars, and vault. She won the conference title on bars and took third on floor and vault. She should shine, especially on bars for the Tigers.

Green will also join the Tigers bars lineup this year after hitting a career high of 9.925 on the event three times this season, including in the high pressure situations of Big 10 Championships and NCAA regionals. She also competed on vault and beam during her career as an Illini, but after being injured in 2024, only competed on uneven bars this season.

Green and Wabi will both help the Tigers continue where they left off last year and fill the void left in the bars lineup left by 2025 SEC co-champion Mara Titarsolej. Essenpreis will bolster the vault lineup with her consistency and the growth she’s shown across her first two seasons.

Ohio State

Ohio State’s bars lineup is getting a huge boost with Sadie Jane Berry (formerly competing for Georgia) and their vault, beam, and floor lineup will be strengthened by the addition of Natalie Martin (formerly competing for Maryland).

Sadie Jane Berry competed nine times on bars as a freshman, earning a career-high 9.875 twice. She was a really strong beam worker in Level 10, placing in the top ten on the event at the 2024 Level 10 Development Program Nationals. It will be interesting to see what lineups she can break into at Ohio State for her sophomore season and beyond.

Natalie Martin, an Ohio native, is coming home with two years of eligibility. She regularly competed three events (vault, beam, and floor) for Maryland and was instrumental in Maryland advancing to the second round of regionals this year with a pair of 9.850s on vault and beam in the first round. She outdid her first round performance with a 9.900 on beam, repeating her 9.850 on vault, and joining the floor lineup for a 9.875 in the second round.

Arkansas, Ohio State, Missouri, Louisiana State, and Maryland come out of this year as the biggest winners, picking up star athletes and filling out their lineups. And, with plenty of athletes still in the portal, the roster shakeups are far from over as we look ahead to the 2026 season.