Pac-12 Women’s Gymnastics welcomes the addition of Southern Utah University

Affiliate membership for Southern Utah in the sport of women’s gymnastics to begin with the new Pac-12’s launch for the 2026-27 season

9/4/2025 12:00:00 PM

By: Pac-12 Conference


The Pac-12 Conference and Southern Utah University today jointly announced that the Flippin’ Birds will join as an affiliate member in the sport of women’s gymnastics beginning with the 2026-27 season, coinciding with the new Pac-12’s launch year. Southern Utah will join Boise State, Oregon State and Utah State as the four members of Pac-12 Women’s Gymnastics. 

"Women’s gymnastics has a long history of excellence in this league and we are proud to build upon that foundation and to continue to be a force in the sport with our new Pac-12 as solidified with the addition of Southern Utah,” said Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould.

Head Coach Scotty Bauman added: “We’ve built something special here in Cedar City. Our athletes, staff, and supporters have put in the work to earn national respect, and now we have the opportunity to compete at the highest level in one of the most storied conferences in collegiate gymnastics.”

With no NCAA automatic qualifier for the sport of women’s gymnastics the new Pac-12 had no requirements to reach a minimum number of members in the sport. Now with four members beginning in 2026-27, the new Pac-12 will continue to see women’s gymnastics be a prominent sport and strength for the league. 

The Flippin’ Birds: A Top 25 Program 

With today’s news, the new Pac-12 welcomes an affiliate member in the sport of women’s gymnastics with a recent history of strong performance and sustained success as evident by a five-year average ranking of 24.2 via Road to Nationals rankings. Other recent highlights for the program include: 

  • 13-Straight NCAA Postseasons - Southern Utah has reached 13 consecutive NCAA regionals, one of the longest streaks in the country and third-longest postseason streak in the new Pac-12 behind Oregon State (50-straight) and Boise State (17-straight). 
  • Three-Straight Conference Champs - The Flippin’ Birds have won a conference championship in each of the past three seasons including 2024 and 2025 MPSF Championships and the 2023 Mountain Rim Championship.
  • Consistent Top 25 Ranking - The program has consistently been ranked in the Top 25 nationally (Road to Nationals rankings), including No. 21 in 2025, No. 22 in 2023, No. 23 in 2021 and No. 22 in 2020 (No. 27 in 2024 and No. 28 in 2022). 
  • 2025 MPSF Awards Sweep - Last season, Southern Utah made MPSF history with a clean sweep across the league’s annual women’s gymnastics awards, including Gymnast of the Year Niya Randolph (second-straight season), Freshman of the Year Mia Hampton, Specialist of the Year Ellie Cacciola, Head Coach of the Year Scotty Bauman and Assistant Coaches of the Year Jamie Wysong and Jeff Richards. 

Top 5 League: Strength of the new Pac-12 in women’s gymnastics 

Now with the addition of Southern Utah as an affiliate member, the new Pac-12 in women’s gymnastics is positioned as a Top 5 league in the country, particularly when considering the past five seasons as well as future conference compositions for the sport, as of September 2025. Since the 2020-21 season, the new Pac-12’s four women’s gymnastics programs have several notable collective highlights, including:
  • An average Road to Nationals ranking of 26.1, the fourth-best mark among all conferences over the last five seasons behind only the SEC (10.2), Big 12 (21.3) and Big Ten (22.7) in that time. 
  • One of three conferences to see over half its league (3 of 4) reach the NCAA postseason in each of the past five seasons, since 2021 (also, SEC - 9 of 9 and Big 12 - 5 of 7), ahead of the Big Ten (6 of 12) and ACC (2 of 6).
  • Impressive postseason streaks with Oregon State (50-consecutive, dating back to 1975), Boise State (17-straight) and Southern Utah (13-straight).
  • Total of 14 Top 25 finishes, considering Road to Nationals rankings, over the past five seasons with Oregon State seeing a Top 25 finish in each of the past 11 seasons and Boise State, Southern Utah and Utah State each seeing three over the past five seasons. 
  • An average team score of 196.114, the fifth-best mark among all conferences over the last five seasons (SEC - 197.200, ACC - 195.329, Big 12 - 196.315, Big Ten - 196.287).
  • An average home meet attendance of 2,335 over the last five seasons, the fifth-highest average attendance in the country and one of only five conferences to average more than 750 per home meet (SEC - 6,748, Big 12 - 3,604, ACC - 2,744, Big Ten - 2,471).
 
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