One Team Missing out on SEC Championship Meet 'Raises the Pressure' for Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— All nine SEC gymnastics programs are ranked among the top 15 nationally, yet one of those nine teams will not have a chance to compete for a conference championship this season.

With Oklahoma joining the league, the SEC went from eight teams to nine teams in gymnastics. The conference championship meet has traitionally featured an afternoon session of four the lowest-ranked teams and the evening session with the four highest-ranked team. The highest overall score from either session is crowned the SEC champion. Even with the addition of OU, one of the best overall gymnastics programs in the country the last decade, the conference decided to keep the championship meet, which will be held in Birmingham this year, at eight teams, meaning one will get left out.

The eight teams that get to compete will be determined by National Qualify Score (NQS), not record. So theoretically, a team could go 0-8 in the SEC and still get to compete if their scores were high enough.

Crimson Tide head coach Ashley Johnston, now in her third season, says the pressure has definitely been ramped up in SEC gymnastics.

"I think for one, having OU join the conference just heightened the intensity, the matchups, the storylines that take place week after week," Johnston said. "I think on top of that, going to an SEC format where the bottom team of the SEC gets left out, which is crazy, because the bottom team in the SEC could actually win a national championship. So I think that heightens the pressure."

It is still in the first half of the season with seven regular-season meets to go, but Alabama would currently be the eighth team to make the field, slightly ahead of Arkansas. Senior gymnast Lilly Hudson says it does create more pressure, but it also creates an opportunity for the gymnasts.

"At the same time, it also fires everyone up because it’s a privilege to compete with the best of the best," Hudson said. "It makes the competition that much greater, and at the end of the day, that’s why we do it. If everyone gets to just get all of that, it wouldn’t mean anything. It makes us work a little bit harder with a chip on our shoulder.”

Alabama's next big opportunity to put up a big score to help its NQS will be this Friday at home inside Coleman Coliseum against the reigning national champions: the LSU Tigers. The Crimson Tide scored a 197.025 in its season opener against North Carolina, but the team has not crossed the 197-threshold since.

"For us, we’ve got to stay in our bubble and focus on the things that are going to make this team great and ultimately move forward from there," Johnston said.