Men's vs. Women's
In the NCAA, gymnastics is a sport where the women's and men's programs are completely different. Like apples and oranges different. NCAA gymnastics has men compete in six disciplines (high bar, pommel horse, vault, floor exercise, rings, and parallel bars) and women compete in four disciplines (uneven bars, vault, floor exercise, balance beam). The fun doesn't stop there, so let's break it down a bit.
To paint a picture of how different men's and women's gymnastics are at the NCAA level, there are some cold, hard numbers that gotta be looked at. In 2013, there were five times as many women's programs as men's programs in the NCAA. There were seventeen NCAA institutions with men's teams and eighty-eight with women's teams (source). Gymnastics is popular with the ladies for sure, but it's worthwhile to keep those "Top Ten Program Rankings" in mind when it comes to men's gymnastics.
The number of female gymnasts who compete in high school gymnastics totally smacks down the number of males. There were 90% more high school gymnasts that were female than male in 2013, which might explain why there are so many more women's teams than men's teams in the NCAA (source).
There are less NCAA programs, less scholarships, and less men competing at the high school level, but go figure: the guys actually have a better chance at earning a spot on an NCAA squad. In 2013, 15.7% of male gymnasts at the high school level were able to continue on in the NCAAs, which is a lot higher of a percentage than their more numerous female gym buddies at 8.8% (source). We know these are a lot of numbers, but what's the big picture?
There isn't much difference between men's and women's gymnastics at the NCAA level versus the elite or training levels (source). Both men and women spend the same twenty hours a week in the gym training, they both compete as a team, and they're both scored using the same system (source).
Man, woman, or animal—we know gymnasts have their work cut out for them if they're going to make an NCAA squad.