Northwest football ends season at No. 4 in final NJCAA rankings

Dec 24, 2024- After a 10-2 season that resulted in division and conference titles, Northwest football officially ends the 2024 campaign ranked fourth in the final NJCAA Division I Rankings, released Friday afternoon.

This is the ninth time in the last 10 seasons that the Rangers have ended the year with a national ranking., dating back to the conclusion of the 2015 season. No MACCC teams were ranked in the NJCAA polls during the 2020 COVID-19 season, due to the conference being the only NJCAA members to participate in a traditional fall season.

Hutchinson (Kan.) earned the No. 1 spot as the 2024 NJCAA National Champions, while national runners-up Iowa Western finished at No. 2 overall. Georgia Military College and Navarro College (Texas) rounded out the top five, checking in at No. 3 and No. 5, respectively.

Elsewhere in the MACCC, Mississippi Gulf Coast finished ninth and MACCC runners-up East Central ended with a No. 10 ranking. Holmes and East Mississippi each finished the season ranked 13th and 14th, respectively.

Since 2015, Northwest has achieved final national rankings of No. 1 (2015), No. 6 (2016, 2019), No. 7 (2017-18), No. 4 (2021), No. 3 (2022) and No. 13 (2023). In that time-span, the Rangers have captured two national titles (2015, 2020), four conference championships (2015, 2020, 2021, 2024) and six division crowns (2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2024).

Northwest has also made six appearances in NJCAA affiliated bowl games or playoff games since 2015, including three trips to the NJCAA Division I Football Playoffs over the past four seasons.

Since Benjy Parker took over the head coaching reins in 2016, the Rangers have compiled a 75-21 overall record and a .774 winning percentage. Parker has further cemented his spot as the Rangers’ second winningest coach, trailing only Bobby Franklin’s 201 victories that were collected over a span from 1981-2004.