A lot of familiar faces could be found when Sporting News magazine released its preseason junior college football national rankings.
East Mississippi Community College will begin the season ranked fourth nationally by the publication. Northwest Mississippi Community College is the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges’ highest-ranked team at third.
Also in the rankings from the state are sixth-ranked Mississippi Gulf Coast Community and No. 11 Copiah-Lincoln Community College.
EMCC will begin its ninth season under Buddy Stephens on Sept. 1 with a road contest at Jones Junior College.
The Lions will be playing with about 60 percent of their roster thanks to suspensions handed out by the MACJC for last season’s season-ending brawl against Mississippi Delta Community College. Players who left the bench area during EMCC’s 48-0 win will not be allowed to play in the season-opener. Thus, sophomores who were not involved and first-year players will be the only ones allowed to play.
In week two, EMCC will play at Gulf Coast in a huge contest, helping shape the early national championship race.
The MACJC will be looking for its fifth National Junior College Athletic Association national championship in six seasons. EMCC won the national title in 2011, 2013 and 2014. The Lions being banned for last year’s postseason opened the door for Northwest to win its first national title since 1999.
On the field, EMCC knocked off Northwest 49-16 to lock up the seventh MACJC North Division championship under Stephens.
Northwest then earned the No. 1 seed from the division by virtue of the EMCC probation. In the postseason, the Rangers beat East Central Community College and Gulf Coast in the MACJC playoffs and Rochester Community and Technical College (Minnesota) in the Mississippi Bowl.
Snow College (Utah) was No. 1 by the magazine.
The official NJCAA preseason ranking will be released in August.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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