NCAA gymnastics pondering changes

The NCAA announced on its Web site Friday morning that its Women's Gymnastics Committee is recommending that two substantial rule changes be made to the format for the sport's annual championship meets, changes that many coaches believe could help increase interest in college gymnastics.

The committee is recommending that four teams advance to the second day of the championship meet rather than six teams, thereby creating what the NCAA is calling "Four on the Floor." Second, it's recommending that all six scores from each apparatus count at the championship meet instead of dropping a team's low score and only counting five.

If the NCAA's Championships/Sport Management Cabinet accepts those recommendations — it's unknown at this point exactly how closely the cabinet will scrutinize the potential changes — Utah gymnastics coach Greg Marsden believes they would be steps in the right direction for gymnastics.

"What I'm pleased about," Marsden said of Friday's announcement, "is that the committee obviously embraced the concept that our coaches' association put forward that we need to make some changes (and) that we need to try and do some things to create more interest in our sport."

The longtime coach of the Red Rocks believes that the future of his sport is at stake and that everyone involved with it needs to work to create a better product.

"If we don't start selling out arenas, if we don't get on live television and create more interest in our sport, we're gonna lose it," Marsden said.

To that end, many coaches believe that going from a six-team final to a four-team final could help get the championship meet on live TV.

A four-team meet would change the length of the meet from three hours to two hours, which would obviously be more attractive to television executives, and it would allow all four teams to compete at the same time instead of having to stagger proceedings.

"We'll have every team on the floor at the same time at nationals, and after every routine, you'll be able to see how that affects results and who's ahead and who's behind," Marsden said. "It'll build drama and everyone will be able to understand it even it they're not someone who really understands gymnastics."

And then there's the recommendation to count all six scores from every team instead of five.

According to the news story posted on the NCAA's Web site on Friday, the committee is recommending that the six-count principle only be used for the regional and national meets and not during the season.

That's something that coaches didn't recommend when they held their annual coaches' meeting last month. Marsden was surprised when he read it in the story but said he'd prefer it to the current set-up.