SENATOBIA – Northwest has found itself in yet another preseason football poll this week as the annual College Football America Yearbook has ranked the Rangers at No. 10 nationally, the organization announced in a press release on Wednesday morning.
This is the third outlet that has featured the Rangers in its preseason rankings, following Street & Smith's ranking of No. 11 and JCGridiron.com's ranking of 14th overall.
Compiled by Kendall Webb and Matthew Postins, the College Football America rankings are comprised of teams from the National Junior College Athletic Association and from the California Community College Athletic Association, the two major sponsors of junior college football. The annual publication can be found at Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and Amazon.com.
California champs Riverside top the rankings at No. 1 overall, followed by fellow MACJC foe and reigning NJCAA national champion Mississippi Gulf Coast at No. 2 and College of San Mateo (Calif.) ranked third, with Hutchinson (Kan.) and Modesto (Calif.) rounding out the top 5.
College of the Canyons (Calif.), Butler (Kan.), Saddleback (Calif.) and East Mississippi are ranked ahead of Northwest at slots 6-9, respectively, while the Rangers round out the overall top 10.
Hinds and Jones College are the only other two MACJC opponents ranked within the top 30, with the Eagles checking in at No. 17 and the Bobcats ranked 23rd.
Northwest is coming off an 8-3 season in 2019, which yielded a sixth straight postseason appearance and the eighth playoff berth in the last 10 seasons. The Rangers' postseason run came to a heartbreaking end with a 22-19 loss to eventual national champion Mississippi Gulf Coast in the MACJC Championship contest.
Since taking over the reins as head coach in 2016,
Benjy Parker has guided the Rangers to a pair of bowl appearances and a 33-11 combined record and 19-5 within the MACJC.
Northwest is tentatively scheduled to begin the 2020 campaign at Copiah-Lincoln on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 6:30 p.m. Click
here for this year's full schedule.
2020 College Football America JUCO Preseason Top 30
1) Riverside (Calif.)
2) Mississippi Gulf Coast
3) College of San Mateo (Calif.)
4) Hutchinson (Kan.)
5) Modesto (Calif.)
6) College of the Canyons (Calif.)
7) Butler (Kan.)
8) Saddleback (Calif.)
9) East Mississippi
10) Northwest
11) American River (Calif.)
12) Iowa Western
13) Fresno City (Calif.)
14) Garden City (Kan.)
15) Lackawanna (Pa.)
16) Long Beach City (Calif.)
17) Hinds
18) Ventura (Calif.)
19) City College of San Francisco
20) Kilgore (Texas)
21) Georgia Military
22) Butte College (Calif.)
23) Jones College
24) Independence (Kan.)
25) Trinity Valley (Texas)
26) Mt. San Antonio College (Calif.)
27) Fullerton (Calif.)
28) Laney (Calif.)
29) Navarro
30) Chaffey (Calif.)
