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2026 NCA College Nationals Results in Daytona: Biggest Winners, Standout Programs, and What Mattered Most

Posted on by Steve Pawlyk
2026 NCA College Nationals Results in Daytona Biggest Winners Standout Programs and What Mattered Most
13
Apr
Steve Blog Circle

Byline Steve Pawlyk

Steve Blog Circle

Byline Steve Pawlyk

By Steve Pawlyk

Published April 13, 2026

Daytona did what Daytona always does. It stripped away the noise.

All season, teams can look unbeatable on social media, in warmups, or on a good weekend in January. Then NCA College Nationals shows up, puts everybody on the same stage, and forces the truth out into the open. The oceanfront, the pressure, the history, the crowd, the expectation, all of it makes this event different. That is exactly why the results still carry so much weight in college cheerleading.

The 2026 NCA & NDA College National Championship returned to Daytona Beach from April 9 through April 11, with college cheer and dance teams competing at the Ocean Center and the Oceanfront Bandshell. Varsity’s event coverage positioned it once again as one of the biggest stages in collegiate spirit competition, and for cheer programs, winning in Daytona still means something different than winning almost anywhere else.

This year’s NCA side delivered exactly what people expect from Daytona. There were power programs doing power program things, smaller schools making serious statements, junior college teams refusing to let go of their place in the conversation, and a few schools that left no doubt about who owned the weekend.

And if you’re looking thru the searchable results below, the biggest story is pretty obvious.

2026 Daytona Weber State NCA Nationals

Weber State owned Daytona

No way around it. Weber State was the headline.

Based on the results, Weber State University walked out of Daytona with five NCA titles:

  • Advanced Large Coed Division I
  • Advanced Small Coed Division I
  • Coed Partner Stunt
  • Large Coed Grand Champion
  • Small Coed Grand Champion

That is not just a strong weekend. That is domination.

When one program wins across multiple coed disciplines and then backs it up with grand champion titles, that tells you the roster was not just talented. It was deep, efficient, and built for this exact environment. Plenty of teams can hit. Plenty of teams can throw difficulty. Very few can do it across enough categories to make the rest of the field feel like they are chasing shadows.

Weber State did.

New Hampshire made a massive statement on the all girl side

If Weber State was the coed story, the University of New Hampshire was the all girl story.

UNH won:

  • Advanced All Girl Division I
  • All Girl Grand Champion

That matters. A lot.

Winning Advanced All Girl Division I in Daytona is one thing. Leaving with the grand champion title too is another. It means your routine did not just survive the weekend. It separated itself. In a setting where even tiny mistakes get magnified and where execution decides everything, New Hampshire clearly brought a routine that was polished enough to rise above a brutal field.

That is the kind of result that changes how the rest of the division looks at you next season.

2026 UNH University New Hampshire NCA Nationals

Texas Tech, Oklahoma Baptist, and McKendree did real damage

Three other programs also left Daytona with multiple titles, and none of them should be treated like a footnote.

Texas Tech University won both:

  • Advanced Large Coed Division IA
  • Advanced Small Coed Division IA

That is a serious weekend and a reminder that Texas Tech is not showing up to be respectable. They are showing up to take divisions.

Oklahoma Baptist University won:

  • Advanced All Girl Division II
  • Intermediate All Girl Division II
  • Spirit Rally Division II

That is one of the more impressive all-around program performances in the results. It shows competitive range, not just one hot routine.

McKendree University won:

  • Advanced Large Coed Division II
  • Advanced Small Coed Division II

That kind of sweep is exactly how a program builds a reputation for consistency. Not flashy hype. Just results.

Need Competition Music Blue 1
Need Competition Music Blue 1

Junior college cheer was still loaded with killers

Anybody who dismisses junior college cheer as some side conversation is not paying attention.

The 2026 results showed junior college programs once again landing major titles:

  • Navarro College won Advanced All Girl Junior College
  • Trinity Valley Community College won both Advanced Large Coed Junior College and Advanced Small Coed Junior College
  • Riverside City College won Intermediate All Girl Junior College
  • Dodge City Community College won Intermediate Small Coed Junior College

No surprise that Navarro and Trinity Valley were right in the middle of the title picture again. Those names keep showing up in Daytona because those programs understand what this event demands. They recruit for it, they train for it, and they perform like they expect to win.

That is why they keep doing exactly that.

The intermediate divisions were not filler. They were loaded

One of the easiest mistakes people make with Daytona results is only paying attention to the highest-profile divisions. That is lazy.

The intermediate winners this year included:

  • California Baptist University in Intermediate All Girl Division I
  • Georgia Southern University in Intermediate All Girl Division IA
  • Oklahoma Baptist University in Intermediate All Girl Division II
  • Christopher Newport University in Intermediate All Girl Division III
  • Stephen F. Austin State University in Intermediate Large Coed Division I
  • East Carolina University in Intermediate Large Coed Division IA
  • Tarleton State University in Intermediate Small Coed Division I
  • Florida Atlantic Univ Club Team in Intermediate Small Coed Division IA
  • Saginaw Valley State University in Intermediate Small Coed Division II
  • University of New England in Intermediate Small Coed Division III
  • University of Texas-Tyler in Intermediate Coed Division II
  • Hope International University in Intermediate All Girl NAIA
  • Morningside University in Intermediate Small Coed NAIA

That is a wide spread of programs from different levels, different regions, and different institutional profiles. Which is part of why Daytona still hits so hard. It is not just one division with the same familiar names. It is a massive pressure test across the whole college cheer landscape.

Game Day and Spirit Rally still matter, whether some people like it or not

There is always a weird chunk of the cheer world that tries to act like Game Day and Spirit Rally are somehow less real than traditional routine divisions.

That argument is old and dumb.

These divisions test different skills, different crowd connection, and different program identity. And for a lot of schools, that matters because actual sideline presence and school spirit are part of the job.

The 2026 winners were:

Game Day

  • Bryant University, Division I
  • Dallas Baptist University, Division II

Spirit Rally

  • Tarleton State University, Division I
  • University of Texas San Antonio, Division IA
  • Oklahoma Baptist University, Division II
  • Alma College, Division III
  • Midland University, NAIA

Those titles count. Full stop.

Group stunt, mascot, and specialty divisions still gave Daytona some of its best moments

Not every headline needs to come from a full team routine.

The 2026 results also saw:

  • University of Alabama win All Girl Group Stunt
  • Georgia Tech win Mascot
  • Weber State win Coed Partner Stunt

These divisions are part of what makes college nationals so watchable. They break up the weekend, add variety, and give programs more ways to prove what they can do under pressure.

They also tend to expose raw execution fast. There is nowhere to hide in stunt-based categories.

What actually mattered most in Daytona

Here is the clean version.

The 2026 NCA College Nationals results showed that the top of college cheer is still being defined by programs that can do three things at once:

  1. Build real difficulty
  2. Stay clean under pressure
  3. Repeat that standard across multiple divisions

That is why Weber State was the biggest story. That is why New Hampshire’s all girl win mattered. That is why Texas Tech, Oklahoma Baptist, McKendree, Navarro, and Trinity Valley all left a mark.

Daytona does not care about your reputation unless you back it up. This year, those programs backed it up.

And for everyone else, the message is pretty simple. If you want to be taken seriously next season, you better show up with more than branding, more than highlight clips, and more than a fan base that talks big online. You need routines that can survive Daytona.

That is the standard. It has always been the standard.

Daytona college cheer results 2026 college cheer nationals

The 2026 NCA College Nationals gave us what Daytona is supposed to give us: clarity.

Some teams confirmed they were exactly who people thought they were. Some raised their profile. Some got exposed. And a few programs flat-out took over the weekend.

If you are combing through the full searchable results on our site, start with Weber State, New Hampshire, Texas Tech, Oklahoma Baptist, McKendree, Navarro, and Trinity Valley. That is where a huge chunk of the story lives.

The scores are there. The placements are there. And Daytona, once again, told the truth.

nca college nationals 2026 results

2026 NCA Nationals Results

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