Reigning National Champion East Mississippi holds down No. 1 spot in NJCAA Preseason Top 20 Football Poll

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – For the second time in three years, the reigning NJCAA National Champion East Mississippi Community College Lions will kick off the upcoming football season ranked No. 1 in the National Junior College Athletic Association's Preseason Top 20 national poll.  The NJCAA's preseason football rankings were released Tuesday by the national office headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Entering the 2014 campaign sporting a 32-2 composite record over the past three years, seventh-year head coach Buddy Stephens' EMCC Lions were previously atop the NJCAA's preseason football rankings in 2012 after claiming their first of two recent NJCAA National Championships the year prior.

Iowa Western, the 2012 NJCAA National Champion, follows at No. 2 in this year's preseason poll, while fellow Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges member Copiah-Lincoln stands at No. 3 nationally.  In a much-anticipated, second-week showdown between inter-divisional MACJC foes, the EMCC Lions are set to kick off their upcoming five-game home football slate on Thursday, Sept. 4, by playing host to the Co-Lin Wolfpack in a 7 p.m. contest to be played at Sullivan-Windham Field on the Scooba campus.

Trinity Valley (Texas) and Georgia Military, EMCC's national championship game opponent last December, round out this year's NJCAA Preseason Top 5.        

Including preseason and final rankings as determined by the NJCAA, East Mississippi has now been ranked in 40 consecutive NJCAA football polls, dating back to the team's No. 16 preseason rating heading into its 2011 national championship season.  Spanning back to the 2011 football season, the Lions have stood among the NJCAA's top 10 teams in 31 of the last 33 regular-season polls, including 28 weeks ranked among the nation's top five squads.          

With a collective overall record of 56-10 and .848 winning percentage, including NJCAA National Championships last year and in 2011, three MACJC State/NJCAA Region 23 titles and five MACJC North Division regular-season crowns, since 2008, Stephens' EMCC Lions have been represented in the NJCAA's weekly football poll 80 percent of the time over the past six seasons combined.  Included among EMCC's 53 weeks (out of 66 total weeks) of being ranked within the NJCAA's Top 20 have been 42 weeks (64%) ranked among the top 10 and 31 weeks (47%) within the top five nationally.        

Unbeaten a year ago en route to capturing their second national football title in three years, East Mississippi's 2013 Lions improved upon their No. 8 preseason NJCAA ranking to settle among the nation's top five squads throughout the regular season.  After holding down the No. 2 spot during the final three weeks of the regular season and into the MACJC State Playoffs, EMCC ascended to the top of last year's final NJCAA poll after earning a 52-32 victory over then-No. 1 Georgia Military College during the NJCAA National Championship Game/Mississippi Bowl played in Biloxi.

Scheduled to kick off their upcoming football slate on Thursday, Aug. 28 at Southwest Mississippi in Summit, the 2014 EMCC Lions previously earned a No. 1 preseason ranking in the JCGridiron.com Dirty 30 Rankings and a No. 2 national rating by the Sporting News 2014 College Football Preview magazine.      

The MACJC is also represented in this year's NJCAA Preseason Top 10 with Mississippi Gulf Coast and Jones County securing the No. 9 and No. 10 positions, respectively.  The EMCC Lions knocked off both MGCCC (45-28) and JCJC (61-24) in Scooba during last year's MACJC State Playoffs en route to capturing their third state football title in five years.

Also from the MACJC, Itawamba is listed 19^th in this year's NJCAA preseason football poll.  Hinds also received preseason votes.