SENATOBIA - Due to anticipated inclement weather associated with Hurricane Francine, Thursday's football contest between Northwest and eighth-ranked East Mississippi has been pushed back to Saturday, September 14 at 7 P.M.

Tickets already purchased for the game will still be honored for the rescheduled date, and all Northwest fans are asked to still wear valor blue as this week's selected color.

Hurricane Francine is expected to make landfall along the central Louisiana coast on Wednesday evening, before tracking up Interstate 55 into Mississippi as a tropical storm early Thursday morning. The storm is anticipated to remain at tropical depression status as it moves through central Mississippi on Thursday afternoon, with rain and strong winds expected for the Mid-South throughout the day Thursday into Friday afternoon.

As for the game itself, Northwest leads the all-time series 43-28-1 against East Mississippi. This is the first matchup between the two teams since 2014 where the Rangers are unranked, snapping a 17-game streak where one or both teams were ranked in the NJCAA polls, dating back to 2009.

Since the 2014 season, the rivalry battle has also helped decide the winner of the MACJC/MACCC North Division, as both teams have represented the division as either the champion or runner-up for 10 straight seasons. The Rangers and Lions have also met three times in the conference playoffs since 2016, with East Mississippi winning all three postseason battles in 2016, 2017 and 2022.

Like all other regular season contests, broadcast coverage will be available on Ranger TV, as well as WHCQ-LD 8 in the Mississippi Delta and WEBU Channel 22 in the Oxford/Water Valley area. Additionally, due to coverage conflicts, the game will air in the Mid-South on The365 subchannel of WMC-TV (Channel 5.5) instead of Action News 5 Plus, with Tyler Springs and Russell Copeland on the call.