Northwest Mississippi Community College rose four spots to No. 6 in the latest NJCAA Top 20 Football Poll released Tuesday after a 40-17 season-opening win at No. 19 Hinds.
It’s the Rangers’ seventh win over a ranked opponent in their last 13 games overall. Northwest defeated a program-record six ranked opponents last year by an average of 18.2 points en route to the national title.
East Mississippi fell out of the top spot after a 27-25 setback at Jones County and No. 4 Gulf Coast, No. 6 Iowa Western and No. 9 Navarro all lost to shuffle the top 10 spots.
Trinity Valley (2-0) is the new No. 1 team in the NJCAA, receiving 137 points and five of nine first-place votes.
Copiah-Lincoln is ranked fourth after blanking Delta 44-0, Itawamba is 11th after an upset over Gulf Coast and Jones County enters at 15th after its monumental upset over EMCC.
Northwest hosts Pearl River (0-1) on Thursday, Sept. 8 in the Rangers’ home-opener at Bobby Franklin Field.
NJCAA Top 20 Poll (9/6/16)
1. Trinity Valley (TX)
2. Snow (UT)
3. Butler (KS)
4. Copiah-Lincoln
5. Arizona Western
6. Northwest Mississippi
7. Hutchinson (KS)
8. Tyler (TX)
9. Lackawanna (PA)
10. DuPage (IL)
11. Itawamba
12. East Mississippi
13. Navarro (TX)
14. Garden City (KS)
15. Jones County
16. Eastern Arizona
17. Mississippi Gulf Coast
18. Glendale (AZ)
19. Dodge City (KS)
19. North Dakota
Courtesy of Kevin Maloney and Northwest Sports Information
