Bye bye, Super Six. Hello, Final Four.
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.
And after a year when the NCAA Gymnastics Championships Super Six final attracted less than 3,000 people, coaches like Utah's Greg Marsden are saying the sport could stand to draw some new fans.
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.
All but two NCAA coaches voted to go to a four-team final at the spring conference. One of those two was Florida's Rhonda Faehn, who explained that she didn't approve of anything that would potentially take opportunities away from gymnasts.
The other format change on the table -- having all six scores count -- did not receive as widespread support and was not approved, but may be so in the future.
Related: Gymnastics backflips to raise interest (From The Deseret News, May 28, 2009)
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