Denied last year’s title chase, Florida gymnastics enters 2021 with championship dreams
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One long national nightmare is over, anyway.
This Friday, the Florida Gators team is in Auburn, set to open a season that, thanks to COVID-19, is abbreviated, with teams only competing within the SEC to reduce travel. One thing will be familiar, at least in a sense: For the first time during Jenny Rowland’s tenure as head coach, the Gators start the season ranked No. 1, just edging out the Oklahoma Sooners, where they perched to finish last year’s COVID-shortened season.
The rest is going to be strange. Each of the SEC’s squads will compete in eight dual meets over 10 weeks, with two bye weeks with not all of the SEC fielding gymnastics programs, this means some teams will double up, and Florida will compete against Auburn twice, once away and once at home. This is in contrast to a normal regular season, which would see the Gators compete in around 12 meets and likel