Three-time NJCAA Champion East Mississippi Lions sit atop NJCAA preseason football rankings

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – As they continue their quest to make additional NJCAA history on the gridiron this season, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College will have the luxury of starting at the top for the third time in four years.  As reigning back-to-back national football champions and with three NJCAA titles over the past four years, the EMCC Lions will kick off the upcoming campaign ranked No. 1 in the National Junior College Athletic Association's Preseason Top 20 national poll.

The NJCAA's preseason football rankings were officially released Thursday by the national office headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado.          

Winners of 44 of their last 46 games dating back to their 2011 national championship season, including a current streak of 24 consecutive wins heading into their Aug. 27 season opener at home against Southwest Mississippi, head coach Buddy Stephens' EMCC Lions will first attempt to break the all-time NJCAA standard for most consecutive wins on the way to bidding to become the first school to claim three straight NJCAA football titles.  Prior to a potential record-setting home date with Coahoma on Sept. 10, East Mississippi will first play host to the vastly improved SMCC Bears before venturing to Wesson to meet preseason-No. 7 Copiah-Lincoln, Sept. 3, in a rematch of last year's MACJC State Championship Game.  Blinn College, out of Texas, presently owns the NJCAA all-time mark of 26 consecutive wins spanning the three-year stretch between 1995 and 1997.      

On the heels of the program's third unblemished 12-0 campaign in the last four years, East Mississippi became just the third NJCAA football program to claim back-to-back outright national titles and the first to do so since Butler (Kan.) Community College in 1998 and 1999.  Blinn initially accomplished the feat during the 1995 and 1996 campaigns.  In addition, EMCC also joined Mississippi Gulf Coast as the lone Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) schools to win three NJCAA football championships.

Including preseason and final rankings as determined by the NJCAA, East Mississippi has now been ranked in 53 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 42 of the last 44 regular-season polls, including 39 weeks ranked among the nation's top five squads.  Dating back to Week 1 of the 2013 campaign, EMCC has been ranked among the NJCAA's top five teams in 26 straight polls, which includes the entire 2013 and 2014 seasons along with the two most recent final rankings and last two preseason polls.    

With a collective overall record of 68-10 (.872) as the NJCAA's second-winningest football program behind Butler (69-12) since 2008, including four MACJC State/ NJCAA Region 23 titles and six MACJC North Division regular-season crowns to go along with their three national championships, Stephens' EMCC Lions have been represented in the NJCAA's weekly football poll 83 percent of the time over the past seven seasons combined.  Included among EMCC's 64 weeks (out of 77 total weeks) of being ranked within the NJCAA's Top 20 have been 53 weeks (69%) ranked among the top 10 and 42 weeks (55%) within the top five nationally.

When including preseason and final rankings, East Mississippi has now been ranked either first or second nationally among the NJCAA Top 20 in 20 consecutive polls.  A year ago, the 2014 Lions held either the top spot or runner-up position during all 11 weeks of the season, including the first eight weeks atop the list.  EMCC slipped to the No. 2 slot behind Iowa Western during Weeks 9 and 10 before reclaiming and maintaining the No. 1 position at season's end with a 34-17 victory over the IWCC Reivers in last year's NJCAA National Championship Game/Mississippi Bowl VII played in Biloxi.  

Iowa Western begins the 2015 campaign as the NJCAA's third-ranked team behind Trinity Valley (Texas) at No. 2 and top-ranked EMCC.  Arizona Western and Nassau (N.Y.) round out the NJCAA's top five preseason teams.

Along with Copiah-Lincoln at the No. 7 preseason spot, the MACJC is also represented in the NJCAA's preseason football poll by Mississippi Gulf Coast at No. 9 along with Northwest Mississippi and Jones County at 16^th and 19^th, respectively.