When the final scores were posted at the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad on January 10, 2026, LSU appeared in second place. The Tigers tied Oklahoma at 197.500, but the NCAA tiebreaker awarded the win to Oklahoma. While the team result was notable, what really captured attention was LSU gymnastics head coach Jay Clark standing up for his gymnast during a controversial scoring moment.

The controversy centered on sophomore Lexi Zeiss during LSU’s final rotation on the balance beam. Zeiss executed a double wolf turn, an element worth 0.2 points, and was initially scored 9.875.

But a last-minute judge adjustment lowered the score to 9.750, prompting Clark to file an inquiry. After review, the score appeared as 9.850, rather than returning to 9.875.

Clark then approached the referee of the meet once more to know why the full score was not given back. Videos of the exchange went viral, and some gymnastics enthusiasts even described his response as someone who should have been given a “yellow card.”

And now two weeks later, when LSU was about to play Missouri on January 30, Clark had explained in detail what had occurred in the meeting.

“I put an inquiry in on the second routine. Didn’t get addressed until the very end,” Clark said. “Both judges had flashed a 10.0 start….It went to the monitors, it came up, and then Judge 1 pulled down the flasher’s handheld and changed her start value to a 9.9, then lowered her score by, I believe, it was a 10th.”

Clark explained that when the inquiry confirmed the double wolf turn had been called incorrectly as a D instead of an E, the correction did not fully restore the score. “Rather than go back up the same amount she dropped her score when she changed the start value, she only came back up half a 10th,” the gymnastics coach said.

“So it changed what was originally 9.875 became a 9.850. And 9.875 obviously would have put us over the top.” Clark also stressed that his focus was on fairness, not changing the meet outcome.

“I was fighting for one of our kids and what I felt she deserved,” he said. “It wasn’t about influencing the result. It was about Lexi. I hadn’t even looked at the scoreboard until after the argument was over.”

And if Zeiss’ score had gone back to 9.875 instead of 9.850, LSU’s team total would have increased by that same margin. That would have put LSU at 197.525, ahead of Oklahoma’s 197.500.

Now that the full sequence of events has been made public, many gymnastics fans who initially criticized Clark have shifted their stance, praising him for standing up for his athlete and backing him for speaking out.

Judging under fire as fans, coaches, and athletes question NCAA gymnastics’ scoring consistency

“They need to do an overhaul of all of these judges. Something needs to be done about their inconsistency. So wrong. These girls work too hard to not be treated fairly across the board,” wrote one fan. Similarly, another fan added, “Why are ncaa judges so terrible.”

The criticism has continued even after the NCAA introduced the SCORE Board system, which tracks judges’ scoring patterns and influences future assignments. The system was designed to improve accountability and consistency, but many fans and coaches still question how much it has actually changed on the floor.

That frustration surfaced just a few days back after Oklahoma’s win over Georgia, when fans pushed back on a bars score for Lily Pederson that was raised from 9.725 to 9.800, despite visible form issues.

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Coaches have echoed those concerns. Following a tight Big Ten opener against Rutgers, Ohio State head coach Meredith Paulicivic publicly questioned how deductions were applied to her team.

She said some of the calls were difficult to explain even to her own athletes, adding that inconsistency in judging makes both coaching and scoring frustrating in gymnastics.

“Judging in NCAA wag needs an overhaul and oversight,” read one comment, while a fan praised Clark directly: “I appreciate him questioning the judges score. He’s fighting for his gymnasts who are not allowed to fight for themselves. More coaches need to do the same. There is a lot of cheating going on and we’re just entering week 5 of the season.”

Another added, “NCAA judges have been absolutely terrible the last couple of years which isn’t fair to the gymnasts who put in so much time and effort.”

Concerns about scoring are not new. In 2024, Olivia Dunne also spoke openly about how the current scoring approach and frequent deductions can be confusing, both for athletes and for fans.

She said, “If you want fans to enjoy the sport and increase viewership, you have to look at what makes the crowds go crazy!  Fans want people who do things that look great to be rewarded,” comparing the many deductions to “a basketball game that’s constantly interrupted with penalties.”

“At some point it feels negative and loses the entertainment factor that draws the crowd in,” she added.