The Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges has banned the East Mississippi Community College football team from this year’s playoffs following an onfield brawl Thursday.
MACJC Commissioner Jim Southward confirmed the postseason ban Friday, indicating EMCC would not be allowed to participate in the playoffs because of the number of players who left the bench area during the altercation at the end of the second quarter during the team’s game against Mississippi Delta C.C. Each player leaving the area received a two-game suspension. That measure leaves EMCC with not enough players to play in the playoffs, which begin Saturday.
“East Miss C.C. will not be eligible to participate in the MACJC football playoffs,” Southward said in a news release. “Both schools will have to adhere to the (National Junior College Athletic Association) ejection policy.”
EMCC was leading Delta 48-0 with 59 seconds left before halftime at Jim Randall Stadium in Moorhead. After a play involving a legal tackle of an EMCC player on the Delta sidelines, a Delta player followed with more physical contact after the play. An altercation then broke out on the Delta sidelines.
The EMCC bench emptied and about 10 minutes of fighting ensuing. The field was covered with a series of skirmishes where players threw punches at one another, at coaches, and at officials. Order was restored by law enforcement and game administrators. After a 10-minute meeting at midfield, the game was called.
Southward said players leaving the bench area and players involved in the fight on the field would receive two-game suspensions. If the action comes in the final game of the season (as it did for Delta), returning players will be suspended for the first two games of next season. Returning EMCC players will have to sit out only next season’s opener.
EMCC, in a news release Friday, said it is considering appealing the postseason ban.
“The (MACJC) has suspended the entire EMCC Lions football team for two games,” EMCC president Dr. Thomas M. Huebner Jr. said in the release. “These consist of what would have been a semi-final playoff game against East Central Community College on Oct. 31 and, for returning players, the first game of the 2016 football season. Gone also is the possibility of playing in this year’s NJCAA championship game. We are currently considering all our options for appealing this decision.”
EMCC won the NJCAA national championship in 2013 and 2014. The Lions were attempting to become the first NJCAA institution to win three-straight titles. EMCC has won three championships under eighth-year coach Buddy Stephens.
“I put this on us for our lack of discipline,” Stephens said after Thursday’s game, “the referees for not controlling the game and (Delta) for (its) lack of discipline.”
Stephens also called the brawl “a total embarrassment.” He declined to comment for this story.
According to a release from EMCC on Friday, the Lions were awarded a 48-0 victory to finish the regular season with a 9-0 record, according to the MACJC and an 8-1 record according to the NJCAA. The MACJC awarded EMCC a forfeited victory against Copiah-Lincoln C.C., but the NJCAA is not recognizing that win.
The school clinched its fifth-straight MACJC North Division championship with a 49-16 victory against Northwest Mississippi C.C. Oct. 15 in Scooba. The Lions won the MACJC state championship in 2013 and 2014. The victory against Northwest meant EMCC was in line to have home-field advantage throughout the MACJC playoffs.
Instead, Itawamba C.C. replaced EMCC in the playoffs. The Indians are back in the postseason for the first time in 2013 and will travel to South Division champion Mississippi Gulf Coast C.C. on Oct. 31 to start the playoffs. The other semifinal also has been changed and will involve North Division runner-up Northwest, now in the No. 1 spot, playing host to East Central C.C.
The ban also will prevent EMCC from playing in one of the NJCAA-sanctioned bowl games this year.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott.
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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