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.

"I'm not sure what the rationale of the committee was, but I think it's better than not doing it at all," he said. "I'm a proponent of getting rid of mulligans. I think it's more exciting if everything counts."

If the NCAA's Championships/Sport management Cabinet passes the new rules, the NCAA said it hopes to implement the changes in time for the 2011 championship meet.

The big question now is whether the cabinet will endorse the changes.

"I'm nervous how the management counsel will look at (the six-count principle) if there's not precedent set somewhere that I'm not aware of — that you can use different rules to qualify for the championships," Marsden said. "It could easily be that different teams would qualify for the championships if you counted all six scores during the season."

If the cabinet does pass them, though, Marsden believes they could provide a platform for positive things to follow.

"We need to try and work toward building arenas for our championships and we need to try and work on getting those championships televised," he said. "These rules aren't gonna magically do those things. We still have a tremendous amount of work to do in other areas, (but) I think these rule changes give us an opportunity to do those other things."

E-MAIL: drasmussen@desnews.com