Illinois head coach Justin Spring is giving ultimatums.

The new five-up, five-count format adopted on March 1 throughout NCAA men’s gymnastics will require one member of each lineup to be cut. The six-up, five-count will no longer be used, allowing mistakes to cause drastic changes in the results of a meet. The competitive nature during practice has rose as the men fight for, what is now, one of the five spots in lineups.

“Because the five-up, five-count has taken some people out of lineup, we’ve given them direct challenges,” Spring said. “We’ve told them, ‘You are going against, him, him and him today on pommel horse in a team routine set, and whoever scores the highest is in lineup.’”

Illinois clinched its first conference win this past weekend against Ohio State in a nail-biting finish. The Illini sealed a victory by less than one point with their 438.6-438.0 win. The confidence from the win has created high energy in practice this week leading up to this weekend’s competition, No. 1 Penn State.

“We hadn’t won a competition at all this season, coming off of a basically undefeated season last year,” sophomore C.J. Maestas said. “It’s now a whole new team, a whole new perspective. We are ready for the competition. We aren’t scared, you can’t be scared in this format.”

The new format is designed in part to help the audience understand the competition. In previous formats — such as the six-up, four-count or the six-up, five-count — falls didn’t always affect a team as greatly as they will now. Gymnasts also want the fans to understand the format better.

“I think it’ll be better for the public,” freshman Joey Peters said. “They will watch people go and they’ll think, ‘How did this team hit all of their events, and this team hit every event but one, and the team that missed still won.’ The audience doesn’t understand that. I think now it’s a little more clear cut. If you fall, the audience will be able to think, ‘That team isn’t going to win.’”

Illinois will be competing alongside the women for the second time at Huff Hall this season. Though a home basketball game will be going on at the same time, Spring hopes the loyal gymnastics fans will still come and show their support.

“I think 4 o’clock is a great meet time,” he said. “A lot of families come at that time. I think we appeal to a little bit of a different audience than a basketball game. I think we are more of a family oriented event, not that basketball isn’t. … I think there are some crossover fans, but we should still have a great crowd.”

There has been a huge shift in momentum since Illinois’ shocking loss to Iowa two weekends ago. The Illini have started doing more team routine simulations and showing more support for each other during practice. Spring hopes the momentum will carry into this weekend’s competition.

“We are going to put on a better show this weekend,” he said. “Will it be enough to beat Penn State? I don’t know. Anything can happen in this format, and Penn State is ranked No. 1 for a reason. They’ve been consistent, they’ve got great starts and they are doing them very well and that’s a recipe for success and they’ve had it early this year. I hope these guys step up to the challenge and at least make it a close battle for Penn State, and we could pull out a win in the end.

“Are we going to find more people who thrive under pressure on Saturday or more of the ones that collapse on themselves? In our sport, it can go one way or the other.”