Gymnastics is a sport where even fractions of a point count. Every routine is based on a 10-point scale -- numbers that athletes can control based on how they perform. Now the gymnasts have little control over the numbers that will decide whether or not they will have an NCAA Championship after next year.

NCAA men's gymnastics only has 36 sponsoring member institutions, falling beneath the 40-team requirement recently adopted at the 1994 NCAA Convention.

Effective Aug. 1 of this year, Proposal No. 158, an amendment to Bylaw 18.2, specifies that a championship will be discontinued the year after it fails to meet the 40-team minimum.

"For a number of years, the minimum number that you had to maintain was a percentage, a percentage of the total institutions in the NCAA," said Tricia Bork, group executive director for championships and event management. "But this legislation changed that to a specific number, so that it was the same for every sport."

To meet the sponsorship requirement, elevating club teams to varsity status would be possible. But with institutions such as UCLA and Michigan threatening to drop their programs, gymnasts and coaches are forced to face the inevitable.

"We've lost a lot of programs and there most probably won't be an NCAA Championship after next year," said Tom Dunn, Iowa men's gymnastics coach.

Since 1938, the NCAA has been sponsoring the men's gymnastics championship. The last championship to be discontinued by the NCAA was boxing in 1961.

The switch from a percentage to a standard number will save seven varsity sports, including men's volleyball, that were in jeopardy under the previous requirement. But men's gymnastics and three Division II sports are still in danger of losing their NCAA-sponsored championships. Bork said this legislation will enable the NCAA to better distribute its resources.

"It's really an effort to devote the association's resources to the sports that the membership, by sponsoring them, has decided are higher priorities," Bork added.

Although some coaches may agree with the philosophy behind the proposal, many have questions that remain unanswered. With 40 sponsoring teams they have a championship, but with 39 they do not.

"What's the difference between 39 and 40? Why 40? Why not 20?" asked Lions' Coach Randy Jepson, adding that the "integrity and the quality of our championship and the product that we put out" are the important issues.

For many men's gymnastics coaches, it has become a battle of quantity versus quality. Men's gymnastics has a history of producing student-athletes with high grade point averages who become hard workers in the community, said Peter Kormann, Ohio State men's gymanstics coach.

"That should count for something," he added. "If the NCAA says it doesn't, then they should hold their heads in shame . . . to say that the only thing that counts is 40 teams is asinine."

With Prop. 158 in place, the future of men's gymnastics is a dark cloud hanging over the heads of many collegiate gymnasts. Lurking uncertainty is not easy for an athlete to face.

"If they're dropping (men's) gymnastics, all I can say is that they better know exactly what they're doing," Lion gymnast Ryan McEwen said. "It better be for the good of the whole NCAA. I really can't see it being that, but I guess it would be from their standpoint."

Despite disappointment, McEwen was able to sift through the negative possibilities in an attempt to confront the situation with optimism.

"I cannot see (the NCAA) dropping it just because I'm a gymnast and I don't want them to," the redshirt sophomore said. "They found a way to stay in it so far, and I'm sure we'll be able to do it somehow."

But the uncertainties facing collegiate men's gymnastics cannot be overlooked. One possibility for many institutions, including Penn State, is dropping their varsity status.

In order to meet the conference's gender equity requirement, Big Ten universities must achieve a 60/40 percent male-to-female athlete ratio by 1995. Many athletic directors would find it difficult to maintain a men's varsity program that is not NCAA sponsored.

"Under the circumstances we're talking about with the gender equity and what have you, it would be difficult to try to justify a program that you don't get credit for in the gender equity situation," said Rich Lucas, Penn State assistant athletic director.

Lucas added that with no established precedent to refer to, the University has not made any decisions regarding the status of its men's gymnastics program.

Putting the college program in danger in turn jeopardizes the international program, especially the U.S. Olympic team, said Lt. Col. Louis A. Burkel, the gymnastics coach at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

"I think that it will have a devastating effect on the international program," Burkel said, adding that with the exception of Lance Ringnald, "As far back as I can remember, every Olympian that we've had has been attached to collegiate gymnastics for at least a year."

While the men are faced with losing their championship, the women aren't watching comfortably, refusing to assume that their championship will be around forever.

Although women's gymnastics is 91-members strong, the women's coaches have learned from the men and are taking steps to accommodate smaller schools.

"We know that every program is important and I think that what happened with the men -- and it wasn't their fault -- but the more isolated, smaller programs, one by one got dropped," said Sam Sandmire, chairman of the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches for Women. "I just think the rich got richer and the poor got dropped. And we need to make sure that doesn't happen in our situation."

No matter where they stand in terms of numbers, the men's coaches and gymnasts are far from packing away their equipment. Jepson cannot guarantee the future, but he has confidence in the sport's ability to overcome the NCAA's roadblock.

"I think the future has a lot to offer young men in terms of providing them an educational opportunity, as well as the best in collegiate gymnastics," he said.