The Red Rocks have made considerable use of the Maverik Center for five years now, but that may have to change going forward.
Since March 21, 2019, Utah gymnastics has competed at the Maverik Center a total of 15 times, maxing out at three times in a single season twice — in 2021 and again in 2024.
The Maverik Center, which hosts meets on a podium, something the Huntsman Center isn’t equipped to do, has become a key part of Utah’s scheduling philosophy and a key part of every season for the Red Rocks since 2019.
The Best of Utah, which pits the Red Rocks, BYU, Southern Utah and Utah State against each other, has been held at the Maverik Center every year since 2020. It has operated in tandem with the Wasatch Classic, another four-team competition.
The Pac-12 conference championships were held there from 2019 until the conference’s collapse (in its previous form) in 2024. This past spring, the Big 12 conference championships were held at the Maverik Center for the first time.
Additionally, nationally televised premiere competitions sponsored by Sprouts have been held there before and will be held there again, including this coming winter. The latest version of the Sprouts Classic includes Michigan, NC State, Arizona, Clemson, LSU, Cal, Utah, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, UCLA and Ohio State in three four-team competitions.
Meets at the Maverik Center in West Valley City have always counted as away meets for Utah, since the U. is located in Salt Lake City while the Maverik Center is located in West Valley City, nine-plus miles away from the school’s campus. Away meets, in particular, matter in women’s college gymnastics given the way national qualifying score is calculated.
The simplest explanation is that high-scoring away meets are more valuable than high-scoring home meets when it comes to NQS and NQS determines rankings, postseason seeding and more.
The Maverik Center being an away competition for Utah could soon be about to change, though.
A new proposal put before the NCAA women’s gymnastics committee earlier this summer is attempting to make neutral-site competitions located within 30 miles of a college campus — like the Maverik Center is for Utah — no longer countable as away meets for NQS, at least no more than once a season.
That means Utah could only count one meet at the Maverik Center as an away meet in a single season. Otherwise, when the Red Rocks compete in West Valley City, they would count as home meets.
The recommendation, initially voted on by the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association during the 2023-24 season, can be read in full below:
“Recommendation
That only one contest held at a neutral site within 30 miles of an institution’s campus be permitted to count as an away contest for purposes of calculating a team’s NQS. This would include multi-team invitationals, duals, tri-meets, quad-meets and/or conference championships. A neutral-site contest in excess of the one permitted away contest would be designated as home contest for NQS purposes.
Effective date
— 2025-26 season.
Rationale
Currently, some programs are competing numerous times during a season within a 30-mile radius of their campus, with no restrictions on how many off-campus events can be counted as away contests, regardless of proximity to the institution. Given that a minimum number of away contests factor into the NQS formula used for postseason selection and seeding, this creates an unfair advantage for teams with access to local, off-campus venues, as they can create home environments for meets that are designated as away contests, which ultimately positively impacts their positioning for championships selections and seeding.
This recommendation will still allow these local, off-campus contests to be conducted as scheduled and countable toward NQS as home events but will no longer allow multiple contests of this nature to be considered away contests for NQS purposes. It was also noted that the coaches association voted to approve this adjustment during the 2023-24 academic year, before forwarding to the committee for review and approval.
Estimated budget impact
None.
Student-athlete impact
This proposal would allow for greater consistency in the designation of home and away contests, subsequently creating more fairness in the championships selection and seeding process.
The Maverik Center debate
Over the years there has been repeated discourse, online and elsewhere, about whether Utah gymnastics has unfairly benefited from meets at the Maverik Center counting as away competitions.
The majority of fans in attendance for competitions in West Valley City are Utah fans, after all, and the Red Rocks are able to sleep in their own beds and avoid prolonged travel that could negatively fatigue them before competition, unlike their opponents.
Moreover, many of the Red Rocks’ best team scores in recent seasons have come in Maverik Center meets.
All of these factors would suggest that Utah has been benefitting from Maverik Center meets in a similar way to meets at the Huntsman Center.
Of course, it can also be argued statistically that Utah hasn’t actually benefitted from away meets at the Maverik Center in a meaningful way. Also, the Red Rocks have frequently outperformed their seeding in the postseason, suggesting NQS hasn’t been doing its job of correctly seeding teams and away meets at the Maverik Center may have been making the field more accurate than not.
Another proposed rule change could change how NQS is calculated, adding the number of meets to the calculus, which would have the byproduct of making away meets less vital, although still important. But a change making Maverik Center meets home meets for Utah, at least half the time, is notable.
Former Utah head coach Greg Marsden issued a passionate plea on social media regarding the change, which he said unfairly targeted the Red Rocks.
“The WCGA and NCAA Gymnastics committee’s proposal to restrict the away designation for neutral-site meets within an arbitrary 30-mile radius unfairly singles out one program while ignoring the broader reality of how and why these events exist,” Marsden wrote.
He later added: “The committee’s 30-mile cutoff only highlights the weakness of the proposal. Why 30 miles? Why not 50, 100, within the same state or region? The committee’s proposed rule is essentially trying to redefine the standard, saying some neutral-site meets close to campus aren’t really ‘away,’ but proximity doesn’t change the fact that it’s neither the school’s arena, nor their event to control.”
The change, if approved, would go into effect this coming season, meaning only one of Utah’s three scheduled competitions (Best of Utah, Sprouts Classic and Big 12 championships) at the Maverik Center in 2026 would count as an away competition. Going forward, Utah’s proclivity for scheduling meets at the Maverik Center could be lessened.
Category: General Sports
