After several years of picking up the pieces, the NCAA can send college gymnastics into the stratosphere of popularity.
The current boom of college gymnastics follows a period of scandal throughout the gymnastics community.
In 2016, nearly 500 gymnasts from all across the country reported that they were sexually assaulted by coaches and staff members working for gymnastics programs.
Larry Nassar, former U.S. Women’s National Team head coach and physician at Michigan State University, was reported individually by over 265 different women for misconduct. The scandal was a deep cut into the sport of gymnastics, one that would take years to heal.
“Our sport has taken so many negative hits for various reasons over the last 5-6 years, people look at college gymnastics as the saving grace,” LSU head coach Jay Clark said.
This is the most talent that the collegiate level of gymnastics has ever seen, and the way the sport is structured is keeping talent in college.
After college, the options for competing in gymnastics professionally are limited, with the only real opportunity being reserved for the best of the best, the Olympics. Without a professional league to poach talent from the NCAA, the collegiate level can hoard the best and most amount of talent to itself.
With all the best gymnasts playing at the college level with no next level for them to get paid, many are choosing to pounce now, putting NCAA Gymnastics at the forefront of the national conversation surrounding NIL.
“I don’t have anyone on the team who hasn’t benefited from it in some way,” Clark said. 
LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne is currently the most followed college athlete in the country, with just under 6 million Instagram followers and nearly 8 million TikTok followers. Dunne has accumulated an estimated $3.5 million annually through her NIL deals.
But at this point, that’s what is expected at LSU. 
Tigers forward Angel Reese made over $1.5 million from NIL after leading LSU to a National Championship last season. She starred in Sports Illustrated’s October 2023 cover with Dunne titled The Money Issue: Generation NIL.
The Tigers have become a national brand, and they know it. LSU’s NILSU program provides student-athletes the tools to succeed in the new, chaotic NIL world. With LSU’s student athletes’ success in the NIL space, it was probably time for the Tigers to have a program to help future superstars.
With more money being thrown around NCAA gymnastics than ever, the sport has recently been put under the national spotlight.
“[Dunne] has turned people who might have never looked at gymnastics, say ‘Hey, I want to watch this meet because I want to see Olivia,’ but then, they actually watch and become a fan of the sport,” Clark said.
Dunne and other gymnasts with a presence remotely like her have pointed eyes toward college gymnastics, and ESPN caught on quickly.
In collaboration with ESPN, ABC aired the 2021 National Championships, the first time the network has shown the National Championships in a decade.
In 2022, ESPN aired more than 60 hours of gymnastics coverage. ABC also aired their first-ever regular season meet when the Florida Gators hosted the Alabama Crimson Tide in an SEC showdown. 
Now entering their biggest season yet, ESPN laid out a plan for their college gymnastics coverage. From more than 70 hours of live televised events to the 10th season of SEC Network’s “Friday Night Heights” and ACC Network’s Inaugural Season of Gymnastics coverage, ESPN is making sure that they take advantage of the opportunity in front of them in 2024: giving college gymnastics the national spotlight.