Men's Gymnastics Coach Randy Jepson liked what he saw when basketball implemented the shot clock.

"You would have scores like 20-18 because guys would take the ball down the court and stand there and hold it forever," Jepson said. "I'd like to think that we have a 'gymnastics shot clock.' "

Jepson is refering to the latest ammendment to NCAA men's gymnastics scoring. Previously, six gymansts would participate in each event and five scores would be recorded. Each team was able to drop its lowest score in each event.

Effective this season, six gymnasts will still compete in each event, but only four will count toward the team score.

The change was implemented by the NCAA after the coaches association voted in favor of the new system at its annual fall meeting. The NCAA is hoping this will help teams that do not have a large roster be more competitive.

"This will certainly help the teams that only have four guys in an event," said Lou Burkel, NCAA men's gymnastics committee chairman. "Schools like Dartmouth, for example, that don't have enough guys to compete will have the incentive now to build since they need fewer to compete."

Burkel, who also is the head coach at Air Force, said the new scoring might entice other schools to establish programs. In addition, Burkel and Jepson said they think the sport will now be more competitive.

"The same teams were always winning the meet," Jepson said. "This will help some talented teams who could not get recognized in the past to do well."

Burkel couldn't agree more.

"In gymnastics, if a team goes up by four or five points, or sometimes even two or three, they have a huge lead," he said. "We did a lot of research on this before we voted and we found that the same teams were winning the meets 98 percent of the time. We're hoping that now the meets will be closer and more exciting."

Burkel said in the years he has been coaching at Air Force, he has seen the scoring system change a number of times. But he says this system will best benefit smaller teams.

But Lion captain Dave Riordan said a lot of teams will not benefit from this new system. The scoring change will have a minimal effect on Penn State's team, he said, because the Lions have a large roster and more depth in their lineup than many smaller schools.

"We have eight all-arounders, while other teams have four all-arounders and a few specialists," Riordan said. "The guys that are going to benefit are the teams that don't have much depth."

While the change was aimed at helping smaller programs, Burkel realizes that the dominant team will still take the victory.

"Theoretically, a team with less depth will benefit," he said. "In reality, the stronger team will still win."

But the main priority of the rule is to increase spectator draw in a continued effort to keep the sport alive, Burkel said. By limiting the total score to four gymnasts, less time is needed for spectators to sit and wait for scores, he added.

Earlier this month, the NCAA voted to sponsor a men's gymnastics championship for two more years. This came less than a year after Proposal No. 158 was passed, stating the NCAA would discontinue a championship the year after it failed to meet a 40-team sponsorship requirement. There are currently 33 member schools sponsoring men's gymnastics at the varsity level.

Burkel is hoping this two-year reprieve will give the sport a chance to increase its popularity. He and his colleagues are counting on the new scoring system to create more excitement and draw in spectators.

"We're just happy that we have two more years in the NCAA," Burkel said. "That means we have two more years to make it more attractive to television and to the viewers. And we feel that speeding up the scoring like this is what's going to do it."