This week is scheduled to be the week that the NCAA gymnastics ratings convert to the Regional Qualifying Score (RQS). I want to take a look at that because it reveals something of particular interest to Bronco fans.
The RQS is calculated by taking a team's top three road scores, the top three remaining scores (home or away), dropping the high score, and averaging the remaining five. Boise State has spent the early portion of the season on the road and ringing up amazing scores, while teams ranked ahead of them (Florida and Utah in particular) have been winning at home. Because of the way the RQS is calculated, road scores are quite important in the formula. Boise State has posted three of its four highest scores of the season on the road (the 196.250 at Utah State, the 195.925 at San Jose State and the 195.000 at #6 Alabama).
Boise State should come in at #11 in the RQS rankings with a 195.223--Stanford should come in #3 this week with196.585, idle Oregon State will remain at 195.935, Nebraska should have a 195.595, UCLA a 195.355, Arkansas a 195.100, Washington a 195.035, Ohio State a 194.975 and Denver a 194.961. Utah, Oklahoma, Alabama and Georgia should hold down positions 2, 4, 5 and 6, respectively. Current #1 Florida does not have enough road meets yet.
What this means is that Boise State's best score of the year, which happened to be on the road, is being thrown out. Typically a team's best scores are at home. You can contribute that to comfort level, home cooking, or whatever. Because the Broncos have not hosted many meets yet (they have three in a row coming up), a golden opportunity lies before them. Boise State is currently counting their lone disappointing meet of the season (a 194.40 loss at Arizona) in their RQS. They are also counting their 194.575 score from their season opening meet at Washington. Thus, if the Broncos can score 196 or better in two of their three home meets, they get to remove both of those sub-195 scores from their RQS calculation.
"If's" never count for anything; Boise State has to go out and achieve in front of their home fans who are eager to have their team back in Boise. But two 196 team scores at home would gain Boise State a whopping 5/10th's of a point in their RQS. In gymnastics, that's a big number. At present, it would put the Broncos at 195.7, more in line with teams like Michigan, Nebraska and Oregon State. Yes, I said Oregon State, which as I have pointed out is a team that the Broncos will have to defeat at the Western Regionals to qualify for the NCAA Gymnastics Championships. I also said that in order to do that, Boise State pretty much has to be seen by the judges and the gymnastics world at being roughly the equal of the Beavers. You see where I'm going with this. With two 196 scores at home, Boise State would be there.
Therefore, the next three home meets are going to be fun to watch. The team has put itself in a position of extreme pressure but only because they are so talented. They've had pressure before and have handled it well. Time to take the next step up.
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