Reigning MACJC state champion EMCC Lions ranked No. 2 in NJCAA Preseason Football Rankings

SCOOBA – The reigning MACJC state champion Lions of East Mississippi Community College will enter the 2017 football season ranked second nationally in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Preseason Top 20 Rankings, as announced this week by the national office headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

To kick off the upcoming junior college football campaign, EMCC ranks behind only 2016 NJCAA runner-up and preseason top-ranked Arizona Western College.  Defending NJCAA champion Garden City (Kan.) Community College follows at No. 3 nationally with Trinity Valley (Texas) Community College and Lackawanna (Pa.) College rounding out the NJCAA's preseason top five at fourth and fifth, respectively.

Including preseason and final rankings as determined by the NJCAA, EMCC has now been ranked in 80 consecutive NJCAA football polls dating back to the team's 2011 national championship season.  Prior to this year, the Lions were tabbed as the NJCAA's preseason No. 1-ranked football team during each of the previous three seasons as well as in 2012.

Additionally, for the past six years heading into the 2017 campaign, East Mississippi has rated among the NJCAA's top 10 teams in 62 of the last 67 regular-season polls, including 49 weeks ranked among the nation's top five squads.

Since 10^th-year head coach Buddy Stephens' first year (2008) at the EMCC football helm, the Lions have been represented in the NJCAA's weekly football poll 87 percent of the time over the past nine seasons combined.  Included among EMCC's 87 regular-season weeks (out of 100 total weeks) of being listed among the NJCAA's football national rankings have been 73 weeks (73%) ranked among the top 10 and 52 weeks (52%) within the top five nationally.

Entering the upcoming season with an overall record of 87-12 and a career winning percentage of .879, EMCC's Stephens is set to challenge the NJCAA's all-time standard for highest career winning percentage among football coaches with a minimum of 100 career games coached.  The current national mark is held by former Butler (Kan.) Community College football coach Troy Morrell, who compiled a 15-year coaching record (2000-14) of 154-22 for a career winning percentage of .875.  Stephens is also poised to break Hall of Fame coach Bob "Bull" Sullivan's all-time school record for most career coaching wins with the Lions' first victory of the 2017 season.  Along with three national championships (2011, 2013 & 2014) to his credit, Stephens has also guided East Mississippi to five MACJC State/NJCAA Region 23 titles, eight MACJC North Division regular-season crowns and five postseason bowl game victories.

Having reeled off 11 straight wins after a season-opening loss at Jones County a year ago on the way to garnering a No. 2 national ranking in the final 2016 NJCAA poll, the Lions will enter this year's slate having won 63 of their last 67 games spanning back to their first of three national championships claimed during a recent four-year span (2011-14).  Over the past six years, EMCC has also put together separate winning streaks of 25 and 20 consecutive games.

East Mississippi is set to open the upcoming football season with consecutive home contests against perennial MACJC South Division powers Jones County (Aug. 31) and Mississippi Gulf Coast (Sept. 7).  Both games are slated for 7 p.m. kickoffs at EMCC's Sullivan-Windham Field on the Scooba campus. 

Also representing the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) in the NJCAA's Preseason Top 10 are 2016 state runner-up Northwest Mississippi at No. 6 and ninth-ranked Northeast Mississippi.  Holmes and Copiah-Lincoln follow in the NJCAA's preseason rankings at 11^th and 18^th, respectively, while Itawamba is included among other teams receiving votes.  

2017 NJCAA Preseason Football Rankings