How do you double the excitement, the number of teams and the number of fans, while maximizing the opportunity to have top competitors compete against unfamiliar rivals at a national championships site -- all while cutting costs?

Impossible?

The NCAA Men's Gymnastics Committee has found a way by combining national qualifying and championship competition in a one-week event.

In reviewing the previous format of the National Collegiate Men's Gymnastics Championships, the committee wanted to find ways to improve the national competition and enhance the regional competition. Often, the same teams compete against one another at the conference meets and are paired again in regional competition.

Last year's champion, Michigan, is a good example. The Wolverines competed against conference rivals Ohio State and Penn State twice during the regular season and again at the Big Ten championships. Two weeks later, at the NCAA East Regional, the teams met again. Michigan ended its season (along with the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions) at the national championships. In contrast, Michigan had not had any previous competition during the season against the other three national title competitors, Nebraska, Brigham Young and Stanford.

The committee solicited feedback from coaches and considered many options, with the goal being to create a situation in which the best teams could get to the national competition. The committee also wanted to use some form of seeding and mix up competition so the same teams wouldn't face against each other repeatedly.

Committee members realized they would have to make the proposal that was attractive not only to the coaches but also to the cost-conscious Division I Championships Competition/Cabinet.

Although the idea for improving the championships had been brewing for some time, since many in the sport were unhappy with the regional qualification system, definitive action occurred during a College Gymnastics Association meeting at last year's championships in Lincoln, Nebraska. Coaches offered many ideas on how to improve the championships experience, how to maximize different match-ups and how to maintain the national competition as the top level for student-athletes.

Tom Dunn, head coach at the University of Iowa and chair of the committee during the process, said the idea of having qualifying competition and the national championships all at one time was suggested "almost in jest."

But as the committee spent time going over all the ideas and options offered, the idea of a one-week event stuck. Dunn said the committee liked the idea of "making the championships weekend a little bit bigger of an event."

Cabinet approval

One of the committee's top goals in revamping the championships format was to get the best six teams at the national championships.

"There are more teams in the East (18) than the West (eight)," said Roy Johnson, current committee chair and head coach at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. "The main thing is to make sure that the best teams have a shot to get to the final."

Miles Avery, head coach at Ohio State University, proposed a format that was similar to the format that was eventually approved. Avery said he agreed with having "the best teams make it to the finals, not just three from the West and three from the East." Avery has witnessed the strength of teams swing from the East to the West and back again in different seasons.

The committee proposed an option that met most of the demands of all the different constituents. The committee recommended to the Championships/Competition Cabinet that the qualifying competition take place the day before the national championships at the national site.

In its first proposal, the committee recommended substituting teams for an equal number of individual competitors. The cabinet denied that proposal at its June meeting.

"The cabinet felt it was an attempt to increase the bracket size," said Dunn.

The committee kept with the idea of having all the competition at one site during one week without altering the participation figures and revised the format. This time the cabinet approved the proposal almost in its entirety. The only sticking point was using the NCAA's travel agency, Worldtek, to get to the national qualifying competition.

With Worldtek being the official travel agency of the NCAA championships, a compromise was reached between the agency and the committee. In an effort to keep costs down, qualifying schools will use Worldtek to purchase nonrefundable tickets, and teams will include a Saturday-night stay, again to keep fares down.

Travel expenses related to the teams' and individuals' participation in the qualifier will remain as the expense of each participating institution. Those teams and individuals selected to advance to the national competition will receive reimbursement from the NCAA as in previous years.

The Saturday-night stay allows nonadvancing teams the opportunity to experience the national competition as fans of the sport, an option that was unavailable in the previous championships format. It also gives individual competitors -- who may be the lone qualifiers for their teams -- the opportunity to have their teams cheering and supporting them throughout the individual title competition; a bonus for the individual competitors and their teammates.

Avery likes this idea. "The one important thing is the athlete experience," he said. "With this format, a lot of athletes will be able to witness the championships," he said. "Gymnastics is the love of their life. They want to see the best in the national championships when they are there."

Competition format

Nonadvancing teams would not miss more class time than if they left after the qualifying competition on Thursday since the Friday of nationals would be a travel day for those teams anyway. And with the advantage of not having to miss class time to attend a regional competition on another weekend, the student-athletes actually will miss less class time in the new format.

The number of teams participating in the qualifying competition will remain at 12. The difference will be how those teams will compete against each other in an effort to advance to the national championships. Instead of the previous method of having teams of the East compete among themselves and teams of the West compete among themselves, the committee will use the national qualifying averages to seed the 12 teams selected to the qualifier.

The qualifying competition will have two sessions of six teams each. One session will conduct competition among those teams ranked Nos. 1, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 12 by national qualifying averages. The remaining teams, Nos. 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 and 11, will compete in the other session.

The two sessions will compete on Thursday, the day before the national championships, with one session occurring during the afternoon and the other in the evening. The host institution, if competing, will compete in the evening session.

The method of advancing to the team and individual national competition will remain the same. The top three teams and top three individuals from each session will advance to Friday's and Saturday's competition.

Instead of the six teams and the all-around competitors competing to make a three-team and all-around final the next day, the six teams and the all-arounders will compete for their respective national titles in one day. Saturday will have the individual-event competition.

Francis Allen, head coach at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, favors having six teams on the floor at one time in competition for the national title. "It's going to give the team finals more grandeur," he said.

Many advantages

The committee did not want to increase costs in their proposed format. With the two regional championships, the NCAA paid for the travel costs of sending 12 judges to two different regionals and 12 to the national site.

In the new format, the championships will use 24 judges, with four for individual events, an improvement over last year's method of using only two judges for each event. In the new system, four judges will score each routine, and the final mark will come from dropping the highest and lowest scores and averaging the two middle numbers.

Having the identical judges scoring all of the competition is another advantage of the new format. There will be no leniency in scoring from one regional to the other. "We will all be on the same floor with the same judges," said Avery.

Allen also likes the benefits of the new format. "It's going to give those teams that haven't been to the national championships an opportunity," he said.

Although Nebraska has had the experience of attending many championships, Allen recognizes that the same teams seem to make the nationals again and again. For those teams that don't, their goal may be to qualify to what were the regionals. Allen said, "It changes the overall goal. It gives them an opportunity to go to the national championships."

Another advantage to the new format will be the reduction of the length of the competitive season. Previously, there was a two-week gap between the end of the conference championships and the regional competition, with another two-week gap before the national championships.

Last season, the national championships were conducted April 22-24. Before the format change was considered, the 2000 finals were scheduled for the weekend of April 13-15. Now, the qualifier and the championships will be March 30-April 1.

"For the student-athletes, it's a season that's two weeks shorter," said Johnson, who sees the shortened season as a benefit for the gymnasts. Many student-athletes go from the NCAA championships competition into the Olympic Trials.

Few concerns

Johnson said the advantages outweighed some of the concerns expressed by several coaches regarding the format change, particularly concerns related to a change from three sites of championships competition to one.

"We had three NCAA championships on our campuses," he said. "The regional competitions gave the sport and the championships additional promotional exposure. Taking those marks (NCAA logos) off our campus twice may have a negative impact."

Also, the one-week format may make the sport look smaller, a potential threat to a protected Olympic-sport championships. Avery is concerned that the change may blemish the sport's image.

"We exposed people (to the sport) in three different areas on two different weekends," Avery said of the old format. "Someone out in the West or the East doesn't get an opportunity to see any of the championships. Everything happens in Iowa."

Allen agrees that it takes away from the old regional concept when the committee would attempt to have the two regionals and the national sites cover different areas of the country. The new format allows only for one site, which may not be the best option for fans traveling a long distance to attend the championships.

But Allen also thinks having the championships site at Iowa is a good compromise for the fans on both coasts. "Keep it centered to get a few more fans," he said.

Overall, however, the sentiment seems to be that the positives far outweigh the negatives.

"The (format) proposal was unanimously supported by the coaches," said Dunn.