ESPN’s NCAA Gymnastics Coverage Vaults To New Heights With Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad This Weekend
ESPN Events' landmark invitational not only features four of the nation's top five squads live on ABC and ESPN+, but ACC Network’s first televised meets help set the stage
WEST VALLEY CITY, UTAH – ESPN Events’ first-ever owned-and-operated gymnastics invitational, the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad, is ready for the record books this weekend outside Salt Lake City. The event not only features four of the top five squads in the country – No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 3 LSU, No. 4 Utah, and No. 5 UCLA – live on ABC and ESPN+, but ACC Network’s first televised meets in network history help set the stage for this landmark competition.
The sport has grown tremendously across ESPN platforms in the past several years. Each season, ESPN has raised the bar in its coverage, whether it’s scheduling the NCAA Championship for ABC, adding “Stream Team” apparatus coverage to ESPN+, enhancing productions with tech tools and innovative camera angles, or the next step in ESPN’s commitment to the sport: adding gymnastics to the ESPN Events portfolio.
The ESPN Events team, led by ESPN Vice President Clint Overby, is in the last rotation of its busiest season, operating approximately 35 events from August through February. Following a 17-game bowl schedule and this weekend’s competitions in Utah, the team will focus on softball and hosting the 2024 Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational Presented by EvoShield.
“The planning and collaboration for this event across our many departments has been a remarkable and rewarding experience,” said ESPN Events director Kristen Shaver. “We are so appreciative of the hard work, expertise, and passion of so many to help launch what we hope will be the high mark of gymnastics quad meets into the future.”
This weekend’s meets welcome several new aspects of the sport and its coverage, including:
- In addition to its signature suite of Tech Tools, ESPN’s production of the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad will utilize a pair of miniature cameras that record up to 1000 frames per second to provide extremely detailed Ultra Slo Motion replays.
- Tonight and tomorrow mark the first meets televised on ACC Network in gymnastics’ first season as a league-sponsored sport in the ACC. In the first session tonight, No. 22 Arizona, North Carolina, Nebraska, and Boise State will compete at 9 ET., with the third session tomorrow at 9 p.m. welcoming No. 7 Cal, No. 11 Michigan State, NC State, and BYU.
- The new quad meet format for the 2024 NCAA Championships will be implemented in all three meets this weekend. Two apparatus will be active at the same time, similar to a dual meet. The events will all end closer together, rather than vault and bars ending significantly earlier than beam and floor. This not only makes the meet more watchable for fans in the venue and on the broadcast but also makes the timing more predictive for the student-athletes and coaches.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Bart Conner and two-time Olympic medalist Kathy Johnson-Clarke team up with sideline reporter Taylor Davis to commentate this weekend’s high-flying action at the Maverik Center.
One of the most-anticipated competitions of the season, the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad is ready to usher in a new era for collegiate gymnastics across ESPN platforms.
