The sport of men's volleyball survived a slight scare when the NCAA recently changed the way it justifies the sponsoring of national championships.

The new legislation, effective Aug. 1 of this year, altered the determination of whether or not a sport has enough sponsoring institutions to necessitate a national championship. Instead of using the percentage of schools that have a sport, the NCAA will now use a set number, 40.

"As the membership was growing, it was realized that the 7 percent was not a valid tool in determining the interest of support of a particular sport," said Marie Tuite, assistant director of championships for the NCAA.

Men's volleyball fell under that preset 7 percent, despite the fact that 61 member institutions sponsor the sport. However, because the championships are televised and bring in money for the NCAA, it had no real threat of being discontinued.

"Men's volleyball has never been in jeopardy of losing its championship, and most likely never will be," Tuite said. "It is televised by CBS. Only 12 of our 79 championships are televised. Men's volleyball has been and continues to be fiscally very sound."

The security of the sport was reaffirmed when the NCAA switched to a standard number rather than the percentage. Tuite explained that because so many new schools that were joining the NCAA do not have men's volleyball, the percentage has slowly been dropping. But that does not mean that the sport was at risk.

Men's gymnastics is feeling the major brunt of this new legislation. Because only 36 schools sponsor men's gymnastics, with this number continuing to decrease, the set requirement of 40 is not being met. Unless more schools add men's gymnastics or elevate their current programs to the varsity level, the championship will be discontinued.

A major reason why men's volleyball is not facing these same problems is that many smaller schools have been receiving funding from the U.S. Volleyball Association. A special grant program has allowed many smaller schools to add men's volleyball.

"We have a start-up grant program that helps set up volleyball programs for schools that are just beginning," said Richard Wanninger, Director of Communications for the USVBA. "Ten or 12 schools have added volleyball over the last five years due to this program, and we are hoping to add volleyball to some of the larger schools."

Penn State Coach Tom Peterson said that because there are so many schools with club-level programs, it would be easy to add varsity level teams if needed. Peterson estimated the number of club teams to be greater than 400, with many already on the verge of becoming varsity-level.

"The adding is real easy," Peterson said. "It's just the different schools may not add the men's teams because of gender equity. That's the bad thing about gender equity -- you cut out things for men instead of adding things for women."

Peterson was unaware of any potential risk that faced men's volleyball, and because of the new legislation, he does not have to worry now.