It’s not official until the NCAA Rules Committee meets this summer, but it’s near certain that Team Final “Four on the Floor” concept approved almost unanimously last season, is dead.
Inside Gymnastics posted a detailed overview of what went down at the recent NCAA Women’s Gymnastics College Coaches meetings:
… … at the 2010 J.O.s, the coaches, again in a near unanimous vote, elected to overturn their previous decision and retain the Super Six. …
Recall that Utah’s Greg Marsden championed the idea of a LIVE Team Championships as key to bringing College gymnastics to the next level.
Since then, not only had no live TV contract materialized, but Women’s Gymnastics has lost the delayed CBS TV coverage they have now.
Last year Florida’s Rhonda Faehn was the sole voice in opposition to “Four on the Floor”.
History has vindicated her concerns.
… “Promoting and marketing our sport is challenging,” Faehn acknowledges, “but I don’t think it’s because we don’t have live TV. I think part of the problem is that our sport—the equipment, the facilities—is very expensive, especially in these hard economic times. I think it’s important that coaches have established relationships with their athletic directors, their community.
We, as coaches, have to work to promote our sport and show why this sport is necessary and valuable. I think part of our job as coaches is marketing. We are all striving to do what Greg Marsden did at Utah, taking his [attendance] from 300 to more than 15,000. That’s what will save programs, not one live television competition.” …
Inside Gymnastics – Reversal of Fortune
I’d like to see the meet, perhaps the most exciting and dramatic anywhere, better streamed online, with a running team total based on AVERAGE counting score / routine.
Thanks Ono No Komachi.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 