Men's Gymnastics Coach Randy Jepson is breathing a sigh of relief. He and his team were just granted a repreive for the next two years.

On Tuesday at the annual NCAA convention in San Diego, Calif., association members voted to sponsor men's gymnastics championships for two more years.

Last year, Proposition 158 passed, specifying that an NCAA championship would be discontinued one year after the sport failed to contain 40 teams. There are currently 33 member schools in all divisions for men's gymnastics, three less than last March.

The proposition took effect last August, giving men's gymnastics one last year to save itself.

Jepson was part of a group of coaches spearheading legislation to keep the NCAA-sponsored championship. After speaking to athletic directors, congresspeople and university presidents, the coaches garnered support.

"People are realizing that the number 40 is not a valid reason for dropping a championship," Jepson said.

Before Prop 158, every sport had to maintain a specified percentage of the NCAA's total member institutions to keep its respective championship.

Deborah Nelson, NCAA assistant director of championships, said Prop 158 was passed because the organization recognized that a number of sports were under the percentage requirement. The NCAA wanted to devote more resources to sports whose numbers were higher, she said.

The number of men's gymnastics teams dropped from 124 in 1972 to 33 in 1995.

Lion gymnast Brandy Wood said Prop 158 reflected only the NCAA's opinion about which sports are important.

"I think that every sport is the highest priority," he said.

Jepson agreed, saying numbers should not be the determining factor. He compared the number of men's gymnastics teams to major sports leagues like the NFL, which only has 26 teams, and still has championships.

"To say that our championship doesn't mean anything is really ludicrous," Jepson said. "Our championship will remain very high quality, and that is something that is hard to get across to people."

Jepson said the problem has a lot to do with money. When budgetary problems arise at a university, men's gymnastics is an easy scapegoat because it may only take up 1 percent of a school's operating budget.

"There's only so much money to go around," he said.

Michigan State Coach Rick Atkinson said a number of schools sponsoring varsity men's gymnastics may have been dropped because of gender equity.

In June 1992, the Big Ten Council of Presidents issued the Gender Equity Action Policy in order to establish a 60/40 percent male/female ratio in varsity conference teams by June 1997.

Though schools have two more years to add varsity men's gymnastics teams, it is going to be hard to add men's sports or reclassify club sports as varsity because of the mandate, Atkinson said. And the current trend of dropping programs in men's gymnastics makes the task even more difficult.

"The problem is everyone is going to have to come to gender equity," Atkinson added. "In this decade of college athletics, you're going to see programs losing instead of gaining."

But Lion captain Dave Riordan sees it differently. He said more colleges may open or reinstate men's gymnastics programs now because of the certainty of keeping the championships for two more years.

Also, this decision is important because younger gymnasts at the high school level will now be encouraged to compete at the collegiate level, he added.