Men’s Gymnastics Barely Making the Cut in the NCAA : Championships: Budget problems make them one of the first trims, but the women’s meet is holding its own.

Although Division I men’s gymnastics no longer has the required membership to stage an NCAA championship event, officials say the meet will continue as long as it earns a profit.

Eleven schools have dropped men’s gymnastics programs in the last four years, and several others--including national powers such as Cal State Fullerton--may be next in line.

The decreasing number of teams has many coaches concerned about the future of the NCAA meet, which starts today at Minneapolis. The women’s championships, which begin Friday in Corvallis, Ore., are comfortably above the NCAA’s participation requirement.

To keep the national meet, 7% of the NCAA’s 1,017 members must have teams in that sport. Forty-five Division I schools have men’s gymnastics teams, 27 fewer than required by NCAA rules.

Currently, 108 Division I schools field women’s gymnastics programs, 36 more than the rules require, and the number has remained steady the last four years.

Lacy Lee Baker, NCAA assistant director of championships, said the men’s meet is exempt from the participation rule as long as it makes money. Last year’s meet at Nebraska earned a profit of $25,837.

Under NCAA rules, men’s gymnastics would lose its championship meet if it lost money for two consecutive years and still didn’t meet the participation requirement.

The meet appears financially sound, but some coaches and officials are worried that athletic departments will continue dropping men’s gymnastics.

Northern Illinois cut its team earlier this season, and Cal State Fullerton’s program is in limbo.

“It’s a damn dismal picture right now,” Nebraska Coach Francis Allen said.

Baker said 45 schools have dropped men’s gymnastics programs since 1980. This is the third consecutive year that the championships haven’t met the participation requirement.

“It has become a big concern because we don’t have the numbers anymore,” Baker said.

The future of the men’s gymnastics team also has been a concern on the Cal State Fullerton campus.

On Monday, Fullerton announced a referendum that would raise student fees to help pay for several campus activities, including men’s gymnastics. Students will vote April 26-27 on whether to raise the fee from $10 to $15 a semester.

If the referendum passes, an additional $240,000 would be generated annually for the fund. But Fullerton Coach Dick Wolfe said he’s pessimistic. He said his 22 years of coaching at Fullerton may be over.

“It’s scary,” he said. “Young kids do gymnastics thinking they’ll have a college program to compete in later on. In another 10 years or so, who knows if one will be there?”

Wolfe said the NCAA meet “has been in danger for a long time.”

“Initially, programs were dropped because they weren’t very good,” he said, “and the coaches who were responsible for them were dragging their feet. But in recent years, it’s all because of budget cuts.”

Baker said most schools drop gymnastics because of budget problems. Others can’t afford insurance costs, she said.

However, coaches argue that budget cuts are a poor excuse for dropping teams. They say most gymnastics programs cost less than $100,000 a year to operate, a small fraction of an athletic department’s budget.

“When schools go on probation for some reason or another and they lose money, they have to cut (the budget),” Allen said. “On some campuses, gymnastics is bound to be one of those sports that get cut.”

UCLA Coach Art Shurlock agreed. “If athletic departments need $60,000 or $70,000 more for a football coach or a basketball coach, then cutting gymnastics is an easy way to get it,” he said.

UCLA women’s Coach Jerry Tomlinson said most women’s programs are protected from budget cuts by Title IX. Therefore, when schools make cuts, the men’s programs are the first to go.

“It’s incredible,” he said. “I grew up in Orange and followed Fullerton gymnastics. Fullerton gymnastics is an institution. This (possible cut if the referendum does not pass) shows that there is no safety zone in gymnastics. Anyone can be touched at any time.”

Budget problems forced many Division II and III schools to cut their programs, and the NCAA withdrew its support in 1984. The U.S. Gymnastics Federation now sponsors the Division II and III meets and began helping several athletic departments finance their teams in 1987.

The federation uses money generated by the Olympics to help the teams. The program has been a success at the Division II and III levels and could someday be used at Division I, said Bob Cowan, USGF men’s program director.

But some coaches say the federation’s program isn’t effective.

“I respect Cowan and what he’s trying to do,” Fullerton’s Wolfe said. “But my suggestion to him was to help out successful programs, to keep them going instead of bringing an unsuccessful one back.”

Nebraska’s Allen described the federation program as “too much wind blowing in the wrong sail,” adding: “When you have to reach down in the cellar and save it, it’s too late. We won’t have an Olympic movement like we have now if we keep losing teams. If the Olympic Committee doesn’t support the sport down in the ranks, it’s not going to do us any good at the international level.”

The last two U.S. Olympic teams relied heavily on college talent. All but one gymnast--Lance Ringnald--came from the collegiate ranks.

“The colleges give us the day-in and day-out regimen,” Allen said. “It gives us the coaches, the gymnasts. . . . It keeps the sport alive.”

Despite the decreasing number of teams, Allen said the NCAA meet will “remain stable” as long as it keeps its TV contract with CBS. The gymnastics contract is figured in with the $1-billion NCAA men’s basketball package, and CBS televises the gymnastics meet on a delayed basis.

“Without TV, I doubt if we’d have a national championship,” Allen said. “The TV contract definitely makes it for us.”

Coaches also are worried about the meet’s attendance, which has decreased along with the number of teams.

Nebraska played host to seven men’s championships in the 1980s and won five team titles. In 1982, the Cornhuskers drew 27,027 for the three-day championships but last year had only 10,394 fans.

“We didn’t do well last year, and I don’t understand why,” Allen said. “We’ve had some excellent crowds.”

While the men’s championships struggle, the women’s meet continues to flourish. Attendance for the finals has ranged from 12,000 to 16,000 in the last five years.

“The men’s (attendance) has been a roller-coaster,” UCLA’s Shurlock said. “It gets going, then it dips down. The women are holding their own and doing a good job.

“I just don’t know what it is with the men’s meet.”

Men’s Gymnastics Notes

Houston Baptist was supposed to play host to this year’s championships, but the school dropped the competition in December in the wake of an NCAA investigation. Three weeks ago, the NCAA put Houston Baptist on three-year probation for infractions involving Miguel Rubio and Alfonso Rodriguez, the school’s top gymnasts. As sophomores in 1988, Rodriguez won the NCAA all-around title and Rubio finished second. The NCAA penalized Houston Baptist for paying for an airline ticket to Spain for Rodriguez and housing Rubio in the student dormitories before he became a student in 1986.

Besides the probation, Houston Baptist Coach Hutch Dvorak was suspended through next season, and the school cannot hold any gymnastics championship events during that period. Rubio and Rodriguez, who missed last year’s championships because of injuries, sat out their senior seasons and are training for the 1992 Olympics.

Minnesota accepted the host role in December. The Gophers, who finished second last year, are the favorites. The host school won six of the last 10 men’s titles, and Minnesota has the highest qualifying score this year at 286.05, an average of 9.54 per gymnast.

Nebraska’s Patrick Kirksey won the West Regional with a 57.75 (9.63 per event), edging UCLA’s Scott Keswick (57.65, 9.60) . . . Ohio State’s Mike Racanelli won the East Regional all-around title with a 58.25 (9.71) . . . Other all-around qualifiers include UCLA’s Chris Waller (56.30, 9.38) and Cal State Fullerton’s Bill Barham (55.85, 9.30). The Titans’ Eli Rodriguez qualified in the high bar (9.75) and parallel bars (9.55). . . . UCLA qualified for the team competition for the 11th consecutive year. The Bruins scored 281.30 in a second-place finish to Nebraska in the West Regional.

ON THE DECLINE The number of NCAA Division I men’s gymnastics programs fielded in the 1980s

1980: 90

1981: 78

1982: 71

1983: 71

1984: 65

1985: 61

1986: 56

1987: 50

1988: 47

1989: 45