The heartbreak was real and immediate! As scores locked in at the Tuscaloosa Regional Final, the No. 6 Cal women’s gymnastics team was left just outside the cutoff, finishing a razor-close third with a 197.575. The host Alabama advanced with a 197.675, edging out the Bears by just one-tenth of a point. Florida claimed the top spot, but it was the third-place finisher that had fans spiraling. The NCAA Championship will go on without Cal.

Cal came into 2025 with momentum and ambition, eyeing a return to the national podium after their historic second-place finish at the 2024 NCAA Championship. But Sunday’s narrow miss felt more like a robbery than a loss to many. Reactions poured in almost instantly. Tweets, TikToks, and comment threads are all asking the same thing. Did Bama really out-gym Cal? Or did the home crowd and home scores carry a little too much weight? The debate is alive, and for Golden Bears fans, it’s a bitter pill to swallow.

An Instagram post by planetofgymnastics highlighted, “Heartbroken for the Cal Bears—fought ’til the end and had one h-ck of a season 💛 but with that, a huge congratulations is in order for @BamaGymnastics!!” And that just about captures the emotional tightrope fans are walking on. Cal didn’t crumble. They soared! Unbeaten in the regular season and in their first year as members of the ACC, the Golden Bears came into Tuscaloosa with a championship pedigree and fire in their eyes. They even led the semifinal round just days earlier. But in a regional final where every tenth counted, it simply wasn’t enough. What stung even more? Alabama, a team that managed just one SEC win all regular season, pulled off the upset of the postseason, squeaking past Cal by 0.100 to punch their ticket to the NCAA Elite Eight.

On paper, Cal had the stats. Senior Maddie Williams continued her stellar run, finishing second in the all-around behind Olympic gold medalist Jade Carey. Williams also tied for first on bars and second on vault, with junior Casey Brown right there beside her. Mya Lauzon and Ondine Achampong posted top-tier floor routines, both flirting with perfection. But depth and maybe a bit of luck favored Alabama on the night. The host team, ranked No. 11 nationally, edged out the No. 6 Bears by a whisper, despite Cal posting a higher team score in Friday’s semis. And just like that, the season was over.

Fans couldn’t help but feel the sting. Cal, once poised for a return to Fort Worth and a shot at rewriting history, watched the door close while the cheers rang out for Bama. There’s no denying the Tide’s performance was strong. But with Cal’s top-tier talent, clean execution, and regular-season dominance, many were left wondering if something more than gymnastics played into the final scores.

Fans erupt over Cal’s elimination, call for a change in NCAA gymnastics hosting rules

The fallout from Cal’s razor-thin elimination didn’t just hit the locker room, it exploded across social media. One frustrated fan summed up the mood bluntly: “I can’t believe people actually think Bama was scored fairly… ridiculous scoring! Cal deserved to go through… what a shame.” And for many, that sentiment wasn’t just emotion talking. After all, the Golden Bears were the outright ACC champions, undefeated in the regular season, and coming off their highest team score in program history.

Add in eMjae Frazier tying her personal best in the all-around this season, and you have a team that looked every bit like a contender. But for them to be edged out by a squad with just one SEC win this year? The frustration was inevitable. Another fan echoed the sting of the result with a quieter, but no less impactful, take: “Cal was robbed with some scores; I’ll stand by that 🥲.” That heartbreak runs deeper than just one meeting, as Co-Head Coach Liz Crandall-Howell recently shared on Flipping Out with Bridget Sloan that the team has battled more than just opponents this season. They’ve been wrestling with injuries too.

“As coaches, we’re always trying to protect the athletes,” Crandall-Howell said. Junior star eMjae Frazier has been navigating a persistent ankle injury, while senior Mya Lauzon has dealt with shoulder issues. Yet the fact that they came so close and still delivered standout routines only deepens the fact that they were shortchanged when it mattered the most. But while some fans pointed fingers directly at the scoring, others focused on the broader structure of regionals itself. “Regionals should be held in neutral sites. Alabama was lucky they were at home. Had it been elsewhere, I think Cal would’ve made nationals instead of them,” one post read.

It’s a growing sentiment in the gymnastics world. The idea is that home teams benefit not just from the roar of their crowd but possibly from unconscious bias in scoring. With so much riding on a tenth of a point, the debate over neutrality isn’t just theoretical, it could be the difference between a dream ending and a heartbreak. Not everyone cried foul, but even the more tempered reactions nodded to an undeniable edge, “I don’t think it was egregious. But I do think they benefited from being at home with the fans, hype, etc.”

Another summed it up with a punch to the gut, “Cal broke my heart 😭 gutted for them. We NEED regionals to no longer be hosted at home team arenas. The home field advantage is RIDICULOUS.” In a sport where perfection is judged by hundredths, the NCAA’s insistence on allowing teams to host high-stakes regionals might be due for a rewrite. Until then, stories like Cal’s-  dominant, dazzling, and ultimately sidelined- may keep haunting fans and athletes alike.