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College gymnastics is about scores, not settling scores. It's about getting to nationals, not getting the best of your opponent, about concentrating on the best you can do, not what your opponent is doing.
Then there are meets between the University of Utah and the University of Georgia, where conventional wisdom is ignored, emotions run high and success is judged by showing up one another, great score be damned.
"If you gave me an option of getting a 197 and losing or a 194 and winning, I'd take the win in a heartbeat," Georgia coach Suzanne Yoculan said. "I'm not about vanilla and fluff, I want the win."
And so do the Utes, who are willing to agree with their biggest rival in philosophy, if only for a night.
"I get her point and I couldn't agree more," said Utah coach Greg Marsden, who sported an "I hate the SEC" T-shirt at practice Thursday.
Let the rest of the college gymnastics season be about getting high scores that qualify the teams to nationals, and leave tonight at the Huntsman Center to be about one thing - the nation's winningest gymnastics programs going head to head for the right to say "We're No. 1 right now."
"It makes it bigger, a little more than usual, knowing it's Georgia," Utah senior Jessica Duke said of the opener. "We know that we're going to be where we are no matter what they do, but in the back of our minds we know we've lost to them the last couple of years, so we want to beat them."
While Utah was the premier gymnastics program in the 1980s, when it won the majority of its 10 national titles, the Gym Dogs have been the team to beat in recent years, winning the last three NCAA Championships. Utah finished third in 2005 and second the last two years.
The regular-season rivalry between the teams was halted from 1992 to 2004 because of feuds between Marsden and Yoculan, but the two made up and resumed their annual competitions in 2005.
Georgia has won every meeting since then, and, including NCAA competition, has won the last eight.
"We want to win, Georgia has had our number the last several years and we want to get over that hump," Marsden said.
Both teams return virtually the same teams that put them above the rest of the nation in 2007. On the floor tonight will be three NCAA champions and gymnasts who have won 13 All-American honors.
Georgia has every gymnast that participated in its title performance last year on its roster, although injuries mean only about 60 percent of its lineup tonight will come from those athletes.
Leading the list of top performers for Georgia is Courtney Kupets, the two-time defending NCAA all-around champion. Among those impacted by injuries are Katie Heenan, the 2007 SEC gymnast of the year who won't go in the all-around because of herniated disks in her back and Tiffany Tolnay, an 8-time All-American who has had the flu all week.
"This is a very different team than what we should have in April," Yoculan said. "But I'm not writing ourselves off either, I've been staying awake at night trying to figure out ways we can win. I'm going to have a Vince Lombardi-type speech ready, I can feel it coming."
Utah might be the healthiest it has ever been for a season opener. Top returners Ashley Postell, runner-up to Kupets in the all-around the last two years, and Kristina Baskett lead a deep team motivated to not repeat 2007's poor start.
"We can't be any more ready right now for the beginning of the season," Postell said. "It should be really exciting because it is Georgia, so the crowd should be great and pumped up, but it's not going to be an easy meet. I think anyone would be lying if they said it was."
National champions competing tonight
ASHLEY POSTELL
Utah senior
2007 balance beam champion and two-time all-around runner-up. She also has 15 All-America awards, one shy of the school record.
KRISTINA BASKETT
Utah junior
2006 uneven bars co-champion and three-time All-American. She has hit 101 out of 113 routines.
COURTNEY KUPETS
Georgia junior
Two-time defending all-around champion as well as the 2007 vault, 2006 balance beam and 2006 uneven bars co-champion.