SCOOBA — While the rules of the game have changed, East Mississippi Community College’s success on the football field has continued.

No. 2 EMCC (11-0) will play for its second national championship in the past three seasons at 2 p.m. today when it faces No. 1 Georgia Military College (11-0) in the sixth Mississippi Bowl at Biloxi High School’s Indian Stadium.

While the 2013 Lions will try to follow in the footsteps of the 2011 squad, the teams have taken different approaches to the title game.

In 2011, the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges eliminated recruiting districts. For the previous 20 seasons, each of the MACJC’s 14 institutions could protect 22 student-athletes within their district.

Protected players were required to attend the school which protected them or to play out of state. With no junior college football played in Alabama or Louisiana, protected players had little options outside of their local two-year school.

While the 14 MACJC schools are still limited to eight out-of-state players, any of the other 47 roster spots can now be held by a player from any school in the state of Mississippi.

“It has totally changed the way we do business,” EMCC sixth-year coach Buddy Stephens said. “The state is now totally open, and we have to find a way to get to as many as kids a possible.”

EMCC defeated Jones Junior College 61-24 in the MACJC state championship game last month. Laurel High School is in the same county at Jones. In 2011, Laurel played for the Mississippi High School Activities Association’s Class 4A state championship.

Today, five players from that South State championship team will play for EMCC. Conversely, the Jones roster had no players from Laurel. The Jones roster had four players from Jones County.

Under the former system, it is safe bet that the majority — if not all — of the five Laurel players at EMCC would have been protected and played at Jones.

“We are simply not going to recruit north of I-20,” Jones second-year coach Ray Perkins said. “We don’t have manpower or the resources to travel all over the state. I think change is coming. They will have to do something differently because there are a lot of problems with what we are doing now.”

All five Laurel players have had huge impacts for the Lions.

Dontreal Pruitt quarterbacked that Laurel team. At EMCC, he is second in the nation with 3,599 passing yards and 42 touchdowns. Sophomore Justin Mack is one of the leading receivers, sophomore Fenest Armstrong is a starter at cornerback, and sophomore Allen Sentimore is a starter at free safety. Freshman Defond Bester is a backup linebacker.

This season, Laurel won 12 games and played for the Class 5A South State championship. One would think EMCC would be a leader for any prospective Tornadoes signing in February.

“It is all about relationships,” Stephens said. “If you take care of a coach’s players, they know that and you will have a chance to coach more players from that school. We feel like we have an established program, and we feel like we have a pulse on what is going on around the state.”

Offensive line coach D.J. Looney joined the EMCC coaching staff this season. Looney jokes he has been in “all but one or two” of Mississippi’s 82 counties.

The official two-deep list of starters and reserves for the EMCC bowl game includes six offensive players from the original recruiting district area. Of that group, only right tackle Blake Sharp (Heritage Academy) and running back Lakenderic Thomas (West Point) are listed as starters. Heritage Academy’s Brandon Bell is a top receiver, while former Starkville High standout Preston Baker is a leading rusher out of the backfield.

On defense, starting strong safety Byerson Cockrell (Columbus) and reserve cornerback Quan Latham (Columbus) are the only locals listed.

EMCC’s roster includes 11 players from the original recruiting area, compared to 27 from the first state championship team in 2009.

“It is now about resources,” said 10th-year Copiah-Lincoln C.C. coach Glenn Davis, who led the Wolves to the 2012 MACJC state championship. “In the next five years, you will see who wants to make a financial investment in their football program. Now is the time to jump in and make a commitment. Otherwise, it will become too late very quickly.”

Perhaps the biggest challenge will come when schools make coaching changes. Perkins was hired in late December 2011, making it nearly impossible to win back the five Laurel players from EMCC’s grasp.

In the past two seasons, nine of the 14 schools in the league have had coaching changes. Northwest Mississippi C.C. has made changes in back-to-back seasons.

In the past, new coaches would come in and automatically have the 22 of the best student-athletes in their area ready to attend meetings and play ball.

“Now it is a clean slate,” said William Jones, a former associate head coach at EMCC who was in his first season as head coach at Pearl River C.C. in 2013. “If you don’t have tradition to sell, I don’t know what you sell. Now you have to come and totally build from the ground up.”

East Central C.C. has done that. Ken Karcher guided the Warriors through a 1-8 season in his first year as coach. One look at the roster helps to explain the struggles. The Warriors had 44 freshmen on their 55-player roster.

The spirit of the rule was to allow student-athletes more opportunities. If high school seniors can sign with any senior college in the state, why can’t the same hold true for junior colleges?

However, the junior colleges work with a narrower budget. Local student-athletes have to be the lifeblood of any program needing as much financial support as possible.

EMCC President Dr. Rick Young made a huge financial investment when the school solicited funds to build arguably the state’s best junior college stadium. The EMCC football coaching staff has access to six vehicles to assist their recruiting efforts.

In response, Sullivan-Windham Field has been packed on a regular basis. Each school will receive a $10,000 participation fee for playing in today’s game. EMCC will attempt to become the third MACJC institution with multiple national championships in football.

Still, change appears to be coming. Perkins feels like the recruiting districts will be reinstated in an effort to restore some parity to the league. Davis believes a couple of things are possible in the future, but he didn’t name specifics.

Stephens also feels something will be done to alter the landscape of recruiting in the state. He wants fairness, but he also wants an acknowledgment of his program’s hard work.

“We started at the bottom and we are here,” Stephens said. “You want to sacrifice for the good of the league. Mississippi junior college football is the best in the nation, so whatever it takes to keep that status.

“However, you don’t want to be penalized. We have worked very hard to get to this point. Other schools had the same opportunity to work just as hard. We have simply capitalized on the opportunity put in front of us.”

Follow Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott.

Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.