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Who will Advance to Auburn?

 Women's 2005 NCAAs

Who will Advance to Auburn?  The race to Nationals starts in early January, as nation's top teams jockey to earn one of 12 spots at Nationals.  Teams have been hard at work through the Fall training period, trying to ensure a trip to Nationals.  CollegeGymFans.com takes a look at the Top 25 teams, as determined by the Coaches' Preseason Poll.  

Since the NCAA officially began sponsoring the Championships in 1982, just four teams have taken the title, Alabama, Georgia, UCLA and Utah.  Defending champion UCLA won their fifth title last spring, making it their second in a row.  Can they make it a three-peat?  Looking to challenge the Bruins will be the usual past champions, Alabama, Georgia and Utah.  Or will there be a new first-time champion?  Both Florida and Stanford garnered first place votes in the Preseason Poll, and both boast top incoming classes.  Nothing is certain however, and just making Nationals and the Super Six finals is going to be challenging.  

The teams that Advance to Auburn won't be easy to predict.  Increasing parity and the all or nothing nature of the Regional meet makes the field wide open.  Even teams well accustomed to making Nationals have found themselves battling for the last tenth of a point necessary to secure that last berth.  Unfortunately, injuries always seem to play a major factor, especially with teams battling for the final slots at Nationals.

Another factor coming into play this season is the partial deployment of a National Judges Assignment system.  Although not yet mandatory, this system is intended to help reduce any incidence of judgeing bias, intimidation, and to improve consistency of scoring.  More information on the system is available at the NAWGJ web site.  It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, this new system has on the RQS races.

Location sometimes plays a factor in boosting the confidence of the host teams, and here are the 2005 Regional Host sites:

So without further ado, here is a brief look at the Top 25, as determined by the Coaches' Preseason Poll.

Teams Ranked 1 through 6

Teams Ranked 7 through 12

Teams Ranked 13 to 18

Teams Ranked 19 to 25

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