Reigning national runners-up EMCC Lions maintain No. 2 spot in NJCAA Preseason Football Rankings

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Reigning two-time MACCC champion and 2023 national runner-up East Mississippi Community College will begin the upcoming football season ranked second nationally in the 2024 NJCAA Division I Preseason Football Rankings. The NJCAA's preseason football rankings were announced Monday by the national office.

Rewarded with their highest preseason football ranking since pre-COVID, head coach Buddy Stephens' EMCC Lions have now been ranked among the NJCAA's top-10 preseason football teams 13 times as he enters his 17^th season at the East Mississippi helm. The five-time national champions and nine-time conference champions were previously tabbed as the nation's No. 1 preseason team six times (and No. 2 in 2017) during the eight-year span from 2012 through 2019.

During the team's 15 seasons of competition (2008-19 & 2021-23) under Stephens' guidance, the Lions have been represented in the NJCAA's weekly football poll 92 percent of the time. Included among EMCC's 157 weeks (out of 171 total weeks) of being listed among the NJCAA's football national rankings have been 129 weeks (75%) ranked among the top 10 and 83 weeks (49%) within the top five nationally.

Including preseason and final rankings as determined by the NJCAA, East Mississippi was ranked in 118 consecutive NJCAA football polls during the nine-year period (2011-19) prior to the Lions' 2020 opt-out season due to health concerns caused by the coronavirus pandemic. That nine-year span saw EMCC rated among the NJCAA's top-10 teams in 90 of 100 weekly polls, including 74 weeks ranked in the top five.

With a 16-year head coaching record of 143-24 (.856) with the Lions, EMCC's Stephens will enter the upcoming 2024 football season ranked second on the NJCAA's all-time list for career winning percentage among coaches with 100 or more career games coached. Along with ranking tied for third among the NJCAA's winningest active head football coaches, Stephens is currently tied for 23^rd on the NJCAA's all-time wins list and is fifth in Mississippi junior college football history. In addition to the Lions' nine conference titles (2009, '11, '13-14, '16-18 & '22-23) in the last 15 years, Stephens' EMCC football teams have also claimed five national championships (2011, '13-14 & '17-18), along with last year's national championship runner-up finish, as well as 11 division crowns (2008-09, '11-16, '18, '21 & '23) dating back to the 2008 season.

Scheduled to kick off on Thursday, Aug. 29, with a conference semifinals rematch against Mississippi Gulf Coast on the Scooba campus, East Mississippi's 2024 gridiron slate also features home MACCC North Division contests against Itawamba (Sept. 19), Coahoma (Sept. 28 – Homecoming) and Mississippi Delta (Oct. 24). Along with interdivisional road meetings with MACCC South Division foes Hinds (Sept. 5) and Pearl River (Oct. 17), the Lions will also have road matchups within division play against Northwest Mississippi (Sept. 12), Northeast Mississippi (Oct. 10) and Holmes (Oct. 31). The 2024 MACCC football playoffs are slated for consecutive Saturdays on Nov. 9 (semifinals) and Nov. 16 (championship game).

Two-time reigning NJCAA Division I football champion Iowa Western Community College remained atop the poll in this year's preseason rankings with all 12 first-place votes, followed by No. 2 EMCC, third-ranked Hutchinson [KS] Community College, No. 4 Kilgore [TX] College, and fifth-ranked Snow College [UT]. Northwest Mississippi Community College is listed seventh in the NJCAA's preseason poll, along with MACCC foes Copiah-Lincoln (#10), Mississippi Gulf Coast (#11), and Jones College (#14).