Georgia at Auburn

Recap

The Big Storyline: After a disappointing loss to Missouri last week, Auburn got back on track even without the best all-around day for Sunisa Lee. In what feels like a common tale, Georgia missed out on a counting NQS score because of a rough beam rotation. 

Implications: For the first time all season, Auburn fell out of the top two in the conference rankings, being passed by both Alabama and LSU. Georgia fell back to the bottom of the conference and out of the top 16, making a non-seeded regionals trip seem more inevitable. Lee also had a bad landing on her Silivas and has been spotted in a boot, but it is unknown whether this is a true injury or just a precautionary measure.

Preview

Current Rankings: No. 14 Georgia at No. 7 Auburn 

Why You Should Clear Space on Your DVR: Georgia is surging, jumping five spots in the national rankings and leap-frogging Arkansas and Missouri to claim the No. 5 spot in the SEC thanks to the shift to NQS. More pertinently, it outscored Auburn by nearly a point in Week 7 (granted, the GymDogs were at home while the Tigers were testing depth on the road, but it’s still unexpected). This meet is shaping up to be a lot closer than it might have been expected to be to start 2023. 

You Can Fast Forward, but not Through This: Olympic champion Sunisa Lee is coming off of an uncharacteristic fall on beam against Missouri, so odds are she’s going to be exceptional this week. You also won’t want to miss the back halves of either team’s floor rotations: Auburn’s Derrian Gobourne and Georgia’s Soraya Hawthorne are neck and neck in the national rankings.