SEC scheduling isn't just a football issue when OU makes the move. Just ask KJ Kindler.

NORMAN ― KJ Kindler has a simple scheduling philosophy.

Face the best.

“I’ve never been shy about putting together a really, really difficult schedule,” the OU women’s gymnastics coach said. “I don’t know where we rank strength of schedule, but I have to think it’s pretty high up there.”

You could say that.

Already this season, the top-ranked Sooners have gone against the teams currently ranked third, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth and 10th in the nation. The only top-10 teams missing from OU’s schedule are No. 2 Florida and No. 7 Cal.

And Friday night, the second-ranked Gators come to Norman.

No. 1 vs. No. 2.

Prime time on ESPN2.

What a showdown.

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“We love to do that,” Kindler said of her Sooners going against tough competition. “To me, there’s no better time to get your team to rise up than when you know that’s what you’re about to meet. I think it’s good for them.”

And she wants it to continue when OU moves to the SEC. Even though that might seem like a foregone conclusion – four SEC teams are currently in the top nine and five are in the top 12 – Kindler doesn’t want to get boxed out of scheduling the likes of Utah, Michigan and UCLA, too.

Might such a thing happen?

Right now, the SEC does a round-robin in women’s gymnastics. Everyone faces everyone else in a dual, so with eight teams competing currently, that fills seven of the eight dual spots that the teams have.

But when OU joins the SEC, there will be nine women’s gymnastics teams in the league. If it continues to do a round-robin of duals, teams would have no opportunity to schedule non-conference duals.

Teams can also schedule two multi-team meets during the season, but that doesn’t guarantee OU would be able to make the schedules align to be able to compete against the best teams from the Pac-12 and Big Ten.

Kindler believes competing against other top teams is important to her team’s psyche in the postseason. If there’s a really good team out there and all her Sooners know of it is the highlights they see and the scores they read, that team might start to seem unbeatable. But if the Sooners compete against those other top teams, they can see they aren’t untouchable.

Doesn’t mean the Sooners will always beat them.

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“But it does mean we’ll be challenged all the time,” Kindler said. “We’ll have to really come up with it in big moments, and in the postseason, that’s what it’s all about: coming up with it in big moments.”

Kindler schedules with an eye on NCAAs ― and clearly, it has worked as the Sooners have won five of the last seven national titles ― and she hopes to be able to continue doing that when OU moves to the SEC.

Perhaps, like football, conference scheduling for women’s gymnastics in the SEC will have to change with expansion. Maybe instead of facing every other conference team in a dual, the SEC could adopt something like what the Big Ten does.

Each of the 10 teams in the Big Ten faces five other teams in dual competition, and then, all of the teams come together for something the league calls the Big Five Meet. It’s held over two days, and on the first day, five teams that won’t see each other in duals compete against each other, then on the second day, the other five do the same.

It sounds convoluted, but it’s not. Michigan, for example, has duals this season against Michigan State, Rutgers, Minnesota, Nebraska and Ohio State. But then at the Big Five Meet, Michigan faced Illinois, Iowa, Maryland and Penn State.

The model allows every Big Ten team to face every other conference team but gives them more scheduling flexibility.

How cool would it be if every SEC women’s gymnastics team gathered at one location for two days of competition? Move it around to a different school every year, and you’d have an event fans and TV execs would love.

It’d be gymsanity.

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Kindler, like pretty much every coach at OU, is excited about the Sooners’ move to the SEC. She believes no other sport at OU will be stepping into better competition than hers. Not football. Not softball. Not baseball. Not any sport.

Hard to argue since every women’s gymnastics team in the SEC is currently ranked in the top 18 in the country.

But Kindler knows there are other great teams in other conferences, too. She wants to make sure her Sooners get to compete against them. She knows firsthand, after all, what a difference scheduling flexibility can make.

Last season, OU went to Florida and lost to the Gators by .350 points. But two months later at the NCAA championships, the Sooners bested the Gators by .0125 points to win another national title.

“I think that loss inspired us going through the season,” Kindler said.

There’s no way to know what Friday night’s dual might mean for the Sooners, but Kindler is excited to find out.

“We’re not trying this meet any different than any other meet; this is a meet where we’re trying to get better,” she said. “We’re trying to think about the next step is going into postseason and taking it day by day. But they’re on fire.

“They are totally dialed in and motivated.”

Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

OU vs. Florida

7:45 p.m. Friday at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman (ESPN2)

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU gymnastics excited for SEC move, hopes to keep tough schedule