CHARLOTTE - Reigning MACCC and National Community College Football champions Northwest will check into the 2021 season with an official No. 3 ranking, as the NJCAA announced in its preseason rankings release on Monday afternoon.

This is the third top five preseason ranking earned for Northwest, after the Rangers were selected No. 1 in JCGridiron.com's Dirty 30 rankings and third overall in the 2021 edition of the College Football America Yearbook.

Northwest is the highest MACCC program ranked in the preseason polls, followed by conference runner-up and South Division favorite Mississippi Gulf Coast at No. 7. Hinds rounds out the preseason rankings in the 13th slot.

Defending NJCAA spring national champion Hutchison (Kan.) tops the rankings with five first place votes. Rounding out the top five are Snow College, Iowa Western and Garden City at the No. 2, No. 4 and No. 5 slots.

Northwest will open the 2021 season this Thursday against Copiah-Lincoln at Bobby Franklin Field. Kickoff is slated for 7 P.M. and will be carried on nwccrangers.com/watch, along with live stats available here.

Tickets for Thursday's home opener and all Northwest home football games will be available exclusively online at nwccrangers.com/tickets.