SEC Day: Oklahoma Legend Maggie Nichols, Coach K.J. Kindler Provide Insight Into SEC Gymnastics

The six-time national champion Sooners will embark on their SEC journey this winter.

Apr 20, 2019; Fort Worth, TX, USA; University of Oklahoma gymnast Maggie Nichols celebrates winning the NCAA national championship with her teammates during the NCAA Nationals at Fort Worth Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports / Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

NORMAN — It just means more in gymnastics, too.

As did most of its athletic teams, the University of Oklahoma’s six-time national champion women’s gymnastics team became a Southeastern Conference member team on Monday. SEC Network analyst and OU alumnus Dari Nowkhah described the grueling conference schedule all SEC football teams are subject to as “the grind.” There won't be days off in the SEC, and the Sooners gymnastics team is preparing for the same welcome.

“Honestly, it’s giving us an opportunity to evolve and it’s challenging our staff and our team,” OU head coach K.J. Kindler told Sooners on SI during Monday’s SEC Day celebration at Memorial Stadium.“We have to come up with new strategies on how to win, when to win. You know, my schedule’s going to be different. The times where I’m having more impactful competitions are at different times of the year.

“So, we kind of have to take a broad look at the program and how to peak our athletes at the right time, so to me, it’s just going to make us better, definitely more thoughtful about what we’re doing and definitely dig a little deeper on what we’re capable of, in my opinion, but I do expect to go in and be making an impact immediately,” Kindler said.

With its move to the SEC, the women’s gymnastics team will be part of a conference that fielded two of this year’s Four on the Floor, including national champion LSU, and four of the 2024 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Tournament’s eight semifinal teams (five counting the Sooners). Exceptional competition, dedicated fans, primetime TV spots and more awaits the Sooners in the new SEC.

“This first year, we will be going to the four highest attended universities,” Kindler said. “That’s our away competition. To me, that was a message, loud and clear, that we better be ready for it.”

Kindler is no stranger to elite competition. The 17th-year coach guided the Sooners to national titles in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023. The Sooners finished 36-2 last year and broke the NCAA scoring record with a 198.950 finish in the Big 12 championship against Denver, Iowa State and BYU on March 23. They held the No. 1 ranking most of the season but were upset in the semifinal by Florida and Utah.

Maggie Nichols, an eight-time national champion, Pan America champion and world champion who competed for the Sooners from 2017-20, spoke to the level of competition Oklahoma’s gymnasts and fans should be prepared for.

“I think there’s going to be a few adjustments, for sure, but I think they’re great adjustments for the Oklahoma Sooners and this program,” the two-time Big 12 gymnast of the year told Sooners on SI on Monday. “I mean, we’re going to be competing in front of bigger crowds, which is going to be great for these girls. I mean, they’re used to the pressure, so it’s going to be great, you know, competing in front of 10,000, 15,000 fans. It’s going to be great. . . I think these girls are ready for it and ready for the change.”

“We’ve been in these environments before. They’re packed. The student sections are wild and crazy and engaged and excited about gymnastics. It’s just going to be a unique environment to be in,” Kindler said. “It’ll be, like I said, a challenge for our team to kind of learn how to handle some of these different moments and to be able to really compartmentalize what’s going on in the arena and focus in on what they’re doing.”

Nichols is one of several former Sooners who have led successful careers at the international level. In performing under greater pressure in front of bigger crowds, moving to the SEC could provide OU’s athletes better preparation for competing at gymnastics’ highest levels.

“Just, you know, growing the sport of gymnastics on SEC Network and ESPN, you know, it kind of gives those girls the Olympic feel a little bit more,” Nichols said. “I have so much pride. I’m so honored to be here. This is such an exciting day for OU and all of the sports,” Nichols said. “It’s going to be a huge transition and great for this sport.”