Gymnastics at the Division III level is struggling, and leaders of several of the remaining programs hope changes can be made to help sustain the sport within the Division III philosophy.

With the defeat of the out-of-season exception for gymnasts at the 2005 NCAA Convention, many athletics directors, gymnastics coaches and gymnasts predict tough times ahead for Division III programs. Others, though, are hoping to keep the sport alive through alternative means.

The nature of gymnastics often clashes with the Division III philosophy, which places the highest priority on the overall quality of the educational experience. Gymnastics, many argue, is a year-round sport that requires year-round access to training facilities and possibly even instruction. When the Division III membership voted decisively against allowing gymnasts to train at institutional facilities with coaches present outside of the normal practice and playing season, advocates for the exception felt that the blow was significant enough to jeopardize the 15 remaining women's and two remaining men's programs in Division III.

Candace Royer, athletics director at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said she believes the few schools that sponsor gymnastics do have a student-athlete's academic aspirations foremost in their minds.

"Given what we just experienced at the NCAA Convention, we're really going to have to look at Division III gymnastics very carefully to make sure that we can maintain the sport at our institutions in a way that will continue to attract high-quality gymnasts," Royer said. MIT sponsors both men's and women's gymnastics.

Consolidation works locally

In the Midwest, Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Commissioner Gary Karner saw the sport declining in popularity in his conference, which offers a league championship. When the number of schools sponsoring gymnastics dropped so much that losing one more school would jeopardize the championship, Karner went looking for a solution. He found it by welcoming three other institutions that sponsor the sport -- including three schools outside of Wisconsin, one of which participates in Division II athletics for most other sports. Gustavus Adolphus College, Hamline University and Winona State University (the Division II program) are all now affiliate members of the WIAC for gymnastics competition.

"We started thinking maybe it would make some sense for solidifying women's gymnastics in the upper Midwest to combine these schools into one single conference," Karner said. "We saw this as a win-win situation. This was going to solidify the sport in our conference, but it also was going to provide the student-athletes at Gustavus Adolphus and Hamline opportunities that they didn't have."

For the first time this year, those student-athletes who hadn't been participating in conference championships will have the chance to win league and individual honors. Karner predicted the consolidation of schools into the WIAC would help stabilize the future of Division III gymnastics in the Midwest.

"I would imagine it would help the recruiting (at the added schools) because now they're part of a conference for gymnastics. I think it solidified the sport. It's a wonderful sport, and even though we realize its participation level at Division III is pretty minimal, I hope that it's going to keep it around for a long, long time," he said.

Other institutions are attempting more grass-roots efforts at drumming up interest as well. At Ithaca College, officials are trying to create a connection between young girls interested in the sport in the Ithaca community and the college athletics program. On a Sunday earlier this month, the institution sponsored activities for National Girls and Women in Sport Day. As part of the event, about 80 young women and girls attended a gymnastics meet at Ithaca.

"I think giving parents more awareness that there is a future for their daughters in gymnastics at the Division III level is key," said Ithaca Athletics Director Ken Kutler.

Broader approach possible

Karner suggested how the NCAA could help save the sport in Division III, though he acknowledged his ideas might be controversial. Currently, the NCAA sponsors National Collegiate championships for both men's and women's gymnastics. However, few Division III men's gymnasts and even fewer Division III women's gymnasts qualify for those meets. Many Division III women's gymnasts attend a separate collegiate championship sponsored by the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA). Earlier this year, the NCAA approved legislation extending the women's gymnastics practice and playing season to allow Division III gymnasts to attend the NCGA championship.

Attending the championship, Karner said, was a costly endeavor for Division III schools, which often spend upwards of $10,000 just to send 10 gymnasts and two coaches to the event.

"Even though this isn't an NCAA-sanctioned championship, if there was some way to provide some reimbursable expenses for those teams that qualify for the NCGA, that would be huge," he said.

There is no competition for only Division III men's gymnasts, said Cathie Schweitzer, athletics director at Springfield College, though she said USA Gymnastics does sponsor a nonscholarship meet for gymnasts in all divisions. While the extension of the season helped female gymnasts, no such accommodation was made for the two remaining Division III men's programs. Schweitzer said she is concerned that a desire for "equal" treatment has prevailed over the need for "fair" treatment.

"My biggest concern is that we try to treat every sport the same, and they're just not the same," she said. "It's probably going to be an institutional decision as to whether we drop men's gymnastics."

Kutler suggested that the Association devote more resources to promoting the sport through communication and awareness avenues such as The NCAA News and by providing funding for institutions to organize clinics in their communities.