Last year’s SEC gymnastics championships were a mess.

A close meet and scoring confusion in Duluth forced the Gym Dogs to put on their championship T-shirts, take them back off, then ultimately put them back on again as they won by the smallest possible margin (.025) over Alabama and Florida.

“I think SECs is even bigger than NCAAs in the sense of rivalry,” said senior Abby Stack. “We really embrace and take to heart our rivalries, and when Florida beat us [in 2007], it was emotional. We really took a vengeance to go out there and beat them back.”

Georgia has won four straight national championships, but not without some SEC heartbreak to go along – it tied with Florida in 2005, and lost to the Gators in 2007.

Junior Grace Taylor still references that loss her freshman year to this day.

“I’ve never been so depressed in my life,” she said. “My mom had to come to Athens to rescue me.”

During their current string of national titles, the Gym Dogs’ average margin of victory at nationals has been 0.575. Over that same span, the average difference between first and second place at SECs has been a mere 0.1875.

“It’s funny how all the SEC teams can be far apart ranking-wise, but when we get to SECs everyone kind of comes together,” Stack said. “It is a tough meet. It is a bunch of tension.”

And, with Alabama and Florida not performing as strongly as they usually do and teams such as Auburn and Arkansas pulling off several upsets throughout the regular conference season, Saturday’s edition of the SECs has the opportunity to be even more highly contested.

“The perennial powers, with the exception of Georgia, have lost more meets than they have in the past. It’s been crazy,” said Georgia coach Suzanne Yoculan.

“It’s been all over the place. I think it’s the most wide open SEC championship there’s ever been. In the past it’s been a competition for first place with Georgia, Alabama, Florida, LSU . But it’s going to be a fight for first, second, third and fourth this year.”

In terms of NCAAs, the stage is pretty much set for the top-ranked Gym Dogs (12-0), and SECs will have little or no affect on where they’re placed come regionals. So that means they’ll be taking it easy Saturday, saving themselves for another national title run, right?

Think again.

“It doesn’t matter? Are you kidding me?” Stack said. “This is a chance to get a ring.”