While the rest of the Penn State athletic teams are busy reworking their schedules to include Big 10 teams, men's gymnastics coach Karl Schier can practically sit back and put his feet up.

As they understand the regulations, the Lions need not face any Big 10 teams to be eligible for the Big 10 Championships, assistant coach Randy Jepson explained.

Regulations aside, Schier and Jepson are ahead of themselves.

Of the teams in the Big 10, seven have gymnastics' programs. Schier had already planned the 1991 schedule to include five of those seven teams. So, next season, when the Lions officially enter the conference, they will be up against their conference competion.

The Lions are an independent team this season, but the 1990 schedule already features Iowa (Feb. 2), Ohio State (Feb. 17) and Michigan State (Mar. 17) while next season Schier has laid the groundwork to include Michigan and Illinois.

Although it may seem that the coach had advance notice of the University's plan, he said that his motives were much simpler.

"Two months ago, we decided as a program to start going in that direction," Schier said. "The transition, amazingly, although I had no inkling of this, had already been taking place. It was just our way of thinking in the way that gymnastics had been shifting in terms of strong teams and our strong program. It was just gravitating that way."

The 1989 NCAA Championships can indeed be seen as evidence to Schier's claim. Last year, four of the 10 teams competing at nationals were members of the Big 10 -- Illinois won the title while Minnesota finished third.

This year, the NCAA Gymnastics Committee passed a vote that not only changes the "road to the NCAAs," but allows the Lions to get a glimpse of next season's competition up close.

Two regional qualifying meets, instead of final season records, will determine which teams go to nationals. The NCAA Executive Committee approved Penn State as the site for the Eastern Regionals to be held April 7.

Next season, although the Lions will participate in the Big 10 Championships at the close of the season, the regional meets will still be the determinants for the NCAA Championships.

"Now, this year we won't be involved in the Big 10 Championships, but strangely we're into the new Eastern Regional meet now," Schier said. "And what is that going to be? Well, essentially it's going to be, in terms of the upper teams -- the Big 10 teams and ourselves."

While the Lions will be busy meeting a number of Big 10 schools next year, joining the Big 10 doesn't mean the end to the normal Eastern rivalries. Since, as Jepson explained, Penn State is not locked into any meets with Big 10 competitors, the team can retain a great deal of scheduling freedom.

To complete the circle of Big 10 competition, the Lions would have to schedule Minnesota and Wisconsin. However, Jepson said that they have not yet decided to make any advances that way so that they can weigh the options of keeping Eastern teams on the schedule.

The benefits from such freedom to choose are twofold. Traditionally, the Lions begin their season with less challenging meets and work into the tougher meets later in the season. At the same time, the Lions can enjoy the prospect of hosting high caliber meets in Rec Hall.

"We want to be fair to ourselves in our scheduling so we can build on our season and progress gradually to the NCAA Championships," Jepson said. "We'd like to face Big 10 teams from a support standpoint in terms of the crowd. We want to have people the crowd is going to enjoy to watch. And the Big 10 is definitely very pleasing."

Jepson also pointed out that the Penn State crowd may benefit in another way. For a number of years, Schier has wanted to host the NCAA Championships, but because of the size of Rec Hall, has realized it would be difficult. With the construction of a new arena and convocation center beginning in the next few years, the Lions can now look forward to such meets.

"The Big 10 also gives us another conference meet, not only to compete in, but host here," Jepson said. "Maybe we can look forward to hosting the Big 10 Championships. We'd love to do that -- both for ourselves and the crowd."

Despite the more challenging repertoire that the Lions will be facing next season, team captain Mark Sohn does not believe the Lions will suffer. Even if the earlier meets are with stronger teams, Sohn said the team can handle the pressure.

"I think it'll bring out the best of these guys," Sohn said. "I think you'll see better gymnastics from them all season long. They won't work into good routines. They'll be there all along."