Comments about ‘Gymnastics back-flips to raise interest’

No. Bad idea. There is no "level" playing field in life -- maybe we should level the field out for all mens'athletic recruiting as well. In fact -- let's take it a step further -- corporate, professional sports, maybe even marriage.

I think that maybe the NCAA should see how the Utes run their meets and take some ideas for how to run their meets. I mean if someone is doing something different than everyone else and they're drawing a lot more fans than most schools in that sport, it's not a bad idea to look at what they're doing and see if they can implement some of those ideas themselves. That would do more to fix the sport than cutting the finals from 6 to 4 teams or counting every score instead of dropping one like they are proposing.

I think this is great. Sports is entertainment after all. Why not try to make it enjoyable for the most amount of people as possible. MLS could learn something from this effort. I read that over 40% of all MLS games end in a tie. That's pathetic. I know several years ago the league had shootouts, but soccer "purists" fought to return to tie games. There aren't enough purists for soccer to be successful in the U.S. Make the games more enjoyable and exciting and the sport will grow. Kudos to these gymnastics coaches who see the big picture and are willing to make changes.

One of the first things I noticed is that when the AIAW ran things, there were 170 teams. The NCAA took over, and now half are left.

The changes have big risks for the traditional powers. The Lady Utes would not have made the finals this year, for example. Using all six scores will strongly favor the deeper or larger teams, but could be score-fatal to smaller teams or teams that have had several injuries. I think the finals could be televised live on CBS College Sports, as is. I have to take a "wait and see" attitude to the changes: if Utah misses the final four when they could have made the Super Six, how understanding will Utah fans be to Greg?

For the first time ever, I agree with Rhonda. This ideas is taking away from girls gymnastics. I can't believe Greg went along with this! His team will be lucky to get passed regionals if they have to count all six scores. The Utes are probably the only team in the country that only keeps 12 athletes. Teams like Georgia, Florida, UCLA always have twice the athletes on their teams. (BYU has like 20 girls!) If one of their girls has a season ending injury it's no big deal. If the Utes lose one girl, it could be devastating! Bad Idea! Come up with something new...like maybe having people in the NCAA that care about gymnastics. It would be nice if they just tried to put their championships on live tv!