The NCAA gymnastics season is in full swing. With all the teams looking to earn themselves the coveted NCAA title, there seems to be significant trouble in paradise. While the gymnasts are ready to enthrall the crowd with their routines, unfortunately, the crowd seems to be off! Attendance in the arenas has taken a significant downfall which is not at all a good advertisement for college gymnastics. And apparently, there are quite a few reasons for the same. One of the biggest problems pointed out by fans and critics is the poor commentary. 

Earlier this week, the complaint against an inexperienced commentary lineup surfaced when Georgia took on Florida. According to a Reddit post, ESPN’s decision to replace Kathy Johnson Klarke from the commentary team was a big mistake. Instead, the channel signed up Anastasia Webb and Samantha Beszerk. Quite evidently, the crowd found a lot of flaws with their commentating skills. Pointing out some of the glaring mistakes, the post stated that no one picked up the occasional over-scoring of the judge. 

It also lashed out at the duo for calling wrong gymnastics routines and overusing a fixed set of words. Sadly, the trend seems to be continuing. In a recent X post, Olivia Dunne pointed out the empty seats in the stands. As a possible reason for the same, Dunne mentioned that too many deductions from the judges made the gymnastics routine lose its momentum. Dunne wrote, “Too many deductions taken at a judge’s discretion feels the same as watching a basketball game that’s constantly interrupted with penalties or a football game with flags on every play. At some point, it feels negative and loses the entertainment factor that draws the crowd in.”

And the problem did not stop there. Despite such bad scoring from the referee, the problem was not addressed by any of the commentators! This was a tell-tale sign that the commentary team was very well-versed in the nitty-gritty of gymnastics. Fans soon began to point out such a lapse as another reason for fans losing interest in the sport. This situation brings unwanted challenges to the sport. 

Thus, after all the hard work, it will be such a shame if the sport loses its value for variables that are not within the athlete’s control. As soon as the post from Olivia Dunne went viral, discontent began to swell up. Online fans quickly flocked to the comment section to express their frustration about the matter. 

Fans give commentators the stick

The online community seemed pretty much frustrated with whatever was transpiring at the NCAA level. One fan took a stand against the controversial scoring in the recent gymnastics meet. The infuriated fan added, “I could never be a commentator in NCAA gymnastics, I’d be calling out the judges left and right.”

Another X user expressed dissatisfaction and shared their opinion on the scores given to NCAA athletes. They also added how the coach of Oklahoma did not appear satisfied with the judgment. “I’ve never heard Ashley Johnson say anything about the scores before tonight. Even the Oklahoma coach was mad about them. It’s going to be difficult for gymnastics to be taken seriously and bring in new fans with judging being so wildly inconsistent. I feel bad for the gymnasts,” read the comment from the concerned fan. 

Another gymnastics fanatic was initially elated about the NCAA gymnastics meet being streamed live. However, the debatable scoring issue coupled with the disappointing live commentary left the fans disheartened. The commenter wrote, “The excitement I had of there FINALLY being a free livestream of NCAA gymnastics is completely gone. This has been ridiculous with the terrible commentators who seem to have never watched a second of gymnastics & the live stream cutting out for half of the 3rd rotation.”

This fan looked in utter disbelief as the comment hinted at the commentator being terrible at the assigned job. The comment read, “Can’t believe this NCAA commentator is not completely insufferable it’s a miracle.”

Lastly, another netizen voiced their dissatisfaction and conveyed how they are looking forward to having better commentators in the live events in the long run. Their comment read, “You have GOT to do better with these NCAA Gymnastics Regionals commentators.” They further complained about how they feel that the commentators do not have a sound knowledge of the sport. “A few are former gymnasts and they’re fine but then you throw in some random dude that has ZERO gymnastics knowledge. Can we not just have a female duo?”

Thus, it is evident that the NCAA wants drastic changes in the commentating team. The future will reveal how things unfold.