The Women's Gymnastics Committee reviewed a variety of proposals from the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches/Women at its annual meeting June 17-21 in Coconut Point, Florida.

In its only formal vote regarding the proposals, the committee reduced the penalty for competing out of order from a .30 deduction to a .10 deduction instead of eliminating the penalty altogether. The committee continues to believe that coaches need to be accountable for accurate lineups, and a penalty prevents inaccuracies in the regional advisory score.

Regarding uniforms, the committee approved swimsuits for practice and warm-ups on a provisional basis for 2003, provided the swimsuits meet all other uniform guidelines. In a related action, the committee did not support allowing student-athletes to wear short tights during regional and national competitions.

For future championships, the committee reaffirmed its preference to continue seeding and pairing 18 student-athletes nationally (using the predetermined pairings procedures), and then selecting the next three teams in each region to regional competition. After the committee's meeting, the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet determined that the women's gymnastics championships will return to this format pending further review from the cabinet's bracket/format subcommittee.

At the cabinet meeting, the following six regional sites were approved for 2003: Central -- University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; North Central -- University of Utah; South Central -- University of Missouri, Columbia; Northeast -- University of Michigan; Southeast -- University of Georgia; West -- University of Washington.

In a committee roster action, the group recommended Donna Sanft of the University of Pittsburgh to succeed Marie Robbins of Alabama as the committee chair.