East Mississippi earns No. 1 preseason ranking by Sporting News 2015 College Football Preview publication

SCOOBA – Eyeing an unprecedented third consecutive NJCAA football championship, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College have received a No. 1 preseason ranking in the first junior college poll of the upcoming campaign produced by the Sporting News 2015 College Football Preview magazine. 

Compiled by junior college sportswriter Tony Jimenez for the nationally distributed college football magazine that is currently available on newsstands nationwide, TSN's Top 25 preseason rankings considered all 138 of the nation's two-year schools that feature football programs.  Along with the 68 junior colleges affiliated with the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), the preseason poll also included the 70 members of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA).

Following the two-time reigning NJCAA Champion EMCC Lions in the Sporting News' 2015 JUCO Preview are No. 2 Mt. San Antonio (Calif.), Trinity Valley (Texas), Iowa Western and Hutchinson (Kan.) at No. 5.  Rounding out the magazine's Top 10 preseason teams are sixth-ranked City College of San Francisco (Calif.), Arizona Western, Riverside City (Calif.), Nassau (N.Y.) and Coffeyville (Kan.).

From the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC), Mississippi Gulf Coast and Copiah-Lincoln, both of which East Mississippi knocked off during last year's MACJC Playoffs en route to claiming the program's fourth state/region championship in six seasons, are included among TSN's "Rest of the Best" national listing at 18^th and 20^th, respectively.     

In addition to featuring East Mississippi in an article headlined "Lions primed to roar to third straight NJCAA title" as well as previewing the predicted Top 10 junior college football teams for the upcoming season, TSN's two-page magazine spread also includes listings of the nation's Top 25 junior college players from a year ago moving on to four-year schools along with the best junior college sophomores returning for the 2015 campaign.  Former EMCC standouts Chad Kelly (QB, Ole Miss), D.J. Jones (DL, Ole Miss) and Lorenzo Phillips (LB, Florida State) are featured in the publication's "Top JUCO Players Moving On" section.

A year ago, head coach Buddy Stephens' 2014 EMCC Lions went undefeated for the second straight season in extending their current winning streak to 24 consecutive games and claiming the program's third NJCAA football title in four years.  Aiming to break the all-time NJCAA record of 26 straight football victories held presently by Blinn College (Texas), East Mississippi owns a 44-2 composite four-year record dating back to the start of the 2011 season.

While joining Blinn and Butler (Kan.) Community College last season as the third school in NJCAA history to produce back-to-back national football championships, the 2014 EMCC Lions were the nation's consensus No. 1 junior college football team at season's end as accorded by the NJCAA as well as by JCGridiron.com and JCFootball.com/JC Grid-Wire.  East Mississippi has now been ranked first or second nationally among the NJCAA Top 20 in 19 consecutive polls, including preseason and final rankings.