Great headline posted by Gymnastics Examiner:
The NCAA has officially approved canning the six team NCAA Gymnastics Championship final in favor of a sleeker four team format, which is more TV friendly, The Salt Lake Tribune reported earlier today.
Some, including several prominent NCAA gymnastics coaches, also believe that a four team final will help casual gymnastics fans follow the action better than the Super Six format, which was first implemented in 1993.
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Of course, the new team championship format, which will debut at the 2011 NCAA meet in gymnastics-neutral Cleveland, can’t be called the Final Four (the reason is a copyright issue with the NCAA basketball tournament of the same name.) So the hunt for a catchy new title is on. At the 2009 J.O. Nationals, which followed the yearly NCAA Coaches Conference, a few took to calling it the “Flipping Four” (go ahead and groan).
Under the new rules, 12 teams will still qualify to the NCAA Championships, but only the top four (the top two from each of two sessions) will advance to the team final. …
read more on Gymnastics Examiner – Bye bye, Super Six. Hello, Final Four
If it doesn’t work, I’d expect to see a return to the 6 Team Final.
By “work“, I mean, help secure live TV coverage of the Team Final in the next couple of years. That’s the main goal of the change.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 