Subjective judging stirs hurt feelings and controversy in almost every gymnastics meet.
But waiting until two days after the regular season ends to change the new-for-1999 rules voted in last year by the coaches for the women's NCAA postseason before they can be implemented? Well, that's a new one that leaves an even worse impression."It's a bad way to run a business. When they set some guidelines, they ought to stick with them," said University of Utah athletic director Chris Hill. "This is one of the few sports where they don't do that, which hurts the credibility of the sport."
As usual in NCAA gymnastics, Georgia, Alabama and Utah are involved. Utah is deeply offended by a sudden change in postseason protocol concocted at mid-day Monday in a teleconference by the NCAA's women's gymnastics committee of six and backed by the NCAA.
"It's the most obvious, blatant, frustrating situation I've ever been involved in in 24 years (of coaching)," said Utah coach Greg Marsden, extra exasperated because he knows it looks as if he's whining when his argument isn't where he has to go to qualify for the NCAA Championships that Utah will host April 22-24 but that the rules were arbitrarily changed in midstream to benefit some teams from powerful conferences.
"There's some monkey business going on around here, and, you know what? It's embarrassing for the sport of gymnastics and for the collegiate coaches as well as the NCAA," said Utah State coach Ray Corn. "Maybe someone ought to demand immediate dismissal or resignation from the committee members."
The ruling that changes where the top three seeded teams in the country will compete in regionals April 10 also directly affects Florida and Ohio State and the fields in Regions 1, 2 and 6, including Region 2 host Utah State. The top two from each of the six regions advance to the NCAA finals.
The sudden shift sends No. 3-ranked Utah -- under original rules ticketed for either Region 2 in Logan or Region 6 at West Virginia -- to Region 1 at Oregon State, considered by all to be the toughest because three of the nation's best teams will vie with other good teams for two berths at nationals. If the NCAA had followed the coaches' association specifications from March 1998 -- rules the NCAA further outlined in a letter to coaches dated March 17 -- No. 1-ranked Georgia would have gotten the Region 1 assignment.
A raw deal, but that's how the seedings shook out under the '99 rules. Until Monday.
In the March 17 NCAA letter, said Marsden, "They very specifically went through the whole procedure." The top 12 ranked teams would be paired -- No. 1 with No. 12, No. 2 with No. 11, Nos. 3 and 10, Nos. 4 and 9, Nos. 5 and 8 and No. 6 with No. 7. If a top-12 team was a regional host (as are Oregon State, Nebraska in Region 3, Louisiana State in Region 4 and Penn State in Region 5), it would compete at home, and its seeding counterpart would travel there. The only change would be if two region hosts matched up in seedings pairings, but that didn't happen.
"Well, it wasn't a rule," said Florida coach Judi Markell. "It was, 'This is what we'd like to do, but we reserve the right to change our minds.' " Markell said she personally would have stuck with the original rules and made any necessary changes for the 2000 championships. Tenth-ranked Florida is now paired with No. 1 Georgia instead of No. 3 Utah and is bound for USU.
"The committee left a window to make any adjustments needed," said Nebraska coach Dan Kendig, a first-year member of the committee.
"I didn't interpret it that way," said Corn.
Marsden said the letter implied any injustices in the new system would be dealt with next summer. The letter asked that specific complaints be mailed to the committee by June, he said.
The intent of the sudden change, said several committee members, was to put the top teams in time zones close to home. Alabama and Utah now travel one time zone from home. Georgia will travel two time zones to Utah State instead of three to OSU. " 'Time zones' is bull droppings," said Corn, noting Georgia won the 1998 NCAAs three time zones away at UCLA.
"It's the first time we've ever done seedings. It's a new procedure, The committee tried to do its very best," said West Virginia coach Linda Burdette, a committee member.
Compounding the bad impression, the coaches association's official ratings Web site put out new rankings Sunday that were incorrect, not factoring in some results from Saturday's end-of-the-season meets. The NCAA refused to publicly confirm until sometime Tuesday which teams are even in the top 12, which order they're in or to which of the six regionals they will go, though it informed individual teams and regional hosts of their own assignments Monday.
Utah's complaint is not going to Oregon State. Based on last week's rankings, that's where it would have wound up anyway.
Utah loathes changing the rules at the last minute to seemingly benefit some powerful teams from the Pac-10 and Southeastern Conference. Utah has no gymnastics conference, and the coach who's won 10 national championships, placed second three times and third twice feels like "the little guy" in all this.
"They just made a sham of the whole deal," Marsden said. "This was manipulated by people with something to gain," he charged. Last week, coaches from Georgia, Alabama and UCLA asked him to join in asking the committee for a change when the rankings indicated that UCLA and one of the other three would go to Oregon State. Marsden said he called the NCAA last week and asked if such a last-minute appeal might be granted, and he was told no, that the original '99 rules would be in effect this year.
An Alabama administrator is on the committee, along with the West Virginia coach. Marsden said West Virginia benefits from the new regional assignments because it gets Alabama and an Ohio State team that rarely is competitive at a national level, giving the Mountaineers a better chance of making nationals. Alabama benefits by being in the easiest of regionals. Marsden said a committee member told him the Alabama and West Virginia members lobbied others on the committee to vote for the changes.
Lost in the controversy is a very real possibility that the '99 NCAA finals could be held in the Huntsman Center without the Utes, who have qualified 23 times and never missed nationals. "I don't see that happening," said Kendig. But Utah didn't see this coming, either.