ATLANTA — Kareem Jackson hoped to avoid much of the hype, but admittedly, it’s tough to ignore.

Tonight’s showdown between Jackson’s undefeated and second-ranked Alabama team and No. 1 Florida, winner of 22 straight games and the reigning national champions, isn’t lacking in hype. The game has it all.

Both teams enter play atop the polls. The winner will almost certainly land in this year’s national championship game in Pasadena, Calif. And after Alabama blew a second-half lead to Florida last season, there’s revenge on the minds of the Crimson Tide and dominance at hand for the Gators.

So while Jackson has done his best to downplay the moment, there’s really not much that can be done. It really is that big of a game.

“You know everybody’s going to talk about that back home,” said Jackson, the Macon native who played in high school at Westside. “They want us to take care of business against Florida, but there’s always that thought of the national championship game. Everybody’s just excited.”

That’s par for the course in both locker rooms.

Florida hasn’t lost since September 2008, and quarterback Tim Tebow is preparing for what will be his final SEC game tonight. The Gators’ monstrous defense returned every starter from the unit that shut down Alabama in the second half of last year’s title game, but this season represents a new challenge. Another national title — the Gators’ third in four years — hangs in the balance.

“It’s a really good feeling to be back in the SEC championship game, but just being here isn’t enough,” said offensive lineman Maurice Hurt, a Milledgeville native who played at Baldwin. “Now we want to win. We worked so hard in the offseason for this, and we still have goals to finish.”

Finishing is what Alabama is concerned with, too.

A year ago, the Crimson Tide arrived at the Georgia Dome undefeated and poised for their first trip to the national championship game in the BCS era, but they blew a 20-17 fourth-quarter lead in the SEC title game as Florida scored twice in the game’s final 10 minutes to secure the win.

That memory still lingers, Jackson said, but a shot at revenge and redemption have been more than enough to motivate the Tide throughout the season. Now that the moment has arrived, last year’s collapse seems like ancient history.

“It’s always a thought in our mind, but we don’t want to sit and think about the past when we have the game in front of us,” Jackson said.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Alabama has forgotten what happened a year ago either.

In Year 3 of head coach Nick Saban’s nearly finished rebuilding of the Tide, consistency has trumped flash, and the coach with one national title already on his resume thinks this year’s Alabama squad is much better prepared for the task ahead.

“Hopefully our players learned last year what it takes to win a championship,” Saban said. “But these are two good teams playing. And it can be a great football game. And it’s probably too bad that somebody has to win and somebody has to lose, based on what everybody’s accomplished.”

Indeed, both teams seem to be hitting their stride just in time to ensure this year’s SEC championship will live up to all that hype.

Florida’s offense struggled at times this season, particularly in the vertical game, but last week’s 37-10 dominance of Florida State had head coach Urban Meyer feeling good about what his team might accomplish against a staunch Alabama defense.

“I think we stabilized the offensive line,” Meyer said. “I think we’re getting more explosive plays than we’ve had this year. For any offense to score points you need to have some chunks. And I think our game against our rival last week was the best we’ve had.”

For Alabama, its annual rivalry game came with a bit more drama, but the Tide’s fourth-quarter comeback behind quarterback Greg McElroy to defeat Auburn proved that they don’t need to dominate to win.

That’s a key lesson for Alabama, Jackson said, and it’s further prove that the maturity of this year’s team far exceeds what the Tide entered battle against Florida with a year ago.

“I think there’s a lot more guys that have bought in to the system,” Jackson said. “There are a lot more guys that know what they’re supposed to do on every play. Last year, some of the guys were still learning. I think we’re better mentally than last year.”

And last year’s game was a great one, but this year has the potential to be so much more.

It’s a rematch with both pride and redemption on the line.

It’s an opportunity, both to stake claim to dominance in the country’s toughest conference and lay claim to a place in the national title game.

It’s history, a matchup of two of the most storied programs in college football, both undefeated, both playing as well as any team in the nation.

In short, Meyer said, it really is impossible to ignore just how much tonight’s game means.

“There’s that young part of me that I am a little overwhelmed,” Meyer said. “When you start talking about the Alabama Crimson Tide and Florida Gators playing for the Southeastern Conference for the right to play for the national championship, you’re probably lying if you’re not overwhelmed by the whole deal. But our job is not to be overwhelmed, it’s how to focus on how to win a football game.”