The Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s gymnastics team had an impressive finish at Sunday’s 2026 NCAA championships, but their social media team took some time during and after the event to call out ESPN over its coverage of the event.
In the middle of the event, which was broadcast on ABC with ESPN branding, the official program account posted, “Split screen must be broken?” and tagged ESPN, presumably wondering why they couldn’t see a particular event.
The account got much more specific later on, calling out the broadcaster for not showing a significant number of events throughout the day.
“Worked incredibly hard all season to get to the [NCAA Gymnastics] Championships. Upset No. 4, No. 5, No. 9, and No. 12 in an unheard-of Cinderella run to Four on the Floor. Our fans tune in from all over the world to watch, and they get shown 60% of our routines. How can we make the National Championship, and this happens?”
A few days after the event, in which the Golden Gophers finished fourth, Forbes Sports’ Caroline Price posted on X that while the ABC/ESPN broadcast showed 92% of Oklahoma’s and LSU’s routines and 88% of Florida’s, it only showed 58% of Minnesota’s, which prompted another response from the Minnesota account.
“We competed in 16 meets this year. In only one of them (Saturday), our fans weren’t able to see every routine,” they wrote. “Since they weren’t on the broadcast, our social team wasn’t able to clip them and put them on social either. Our friends and families are hosting watching parties at their homes or restaurants. They want to watch the main broadcast and not sit with their side tablet on a separate stream they had to pay for. This is so easily fixable.”
The Gophers gymnastics team’s meets were mostly televised on Big Ten Network, Big Ten Plus, and ESPN+ during the 2026 season.
For their part, ESPN says that their coverage was geared towards capturing the storylines that develop during a championship meet.
“The way in which we present a quad meet has shifted so we can tell the story of the championship as the competition develops,” an ESPN spokesperson told Yanyan Li of Front Office Sports, adding that they “[appreciated] the passion and feedback of the gymnastics community” amidst a “continued commitment” to growing the sport.
That’s small consolation for the Minnesota gymnasts who didn’t get their big moments televised.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.