(Portions of this story courtesy of the scacsports.com)

SUWANEE, Ga. – For the fourth time in the last five years, Millsaps College was chosen by the league's head coaches as the preseason favorite to win the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference football championship.

Millsaps garnered five of seven possible first-place votes and tallied 45 total points to headline the poll. The Majors finished one game behind league champion DePauw University last year and posted a 5-1 mark in SCAC play while finishing 7-3 overall.

Head Coach Aaron Pelch begins his second season as his team opened up fall camp this past week. The offense welcomed back four starters including junior quarterback Garrett Pinciotti. A native of Hoover, Alabama, Pinciotti comes off of a stellar year which included 2,206 yards passing and 23 touchdowns.

Defensively, Millsaps brings back six starters led by junior linebacker Marvis O'Sirio and senior defensive lineman Will Derrick. O'Sirio led the team last season with three interceptions and two forced fumbles. He also finished fourth on the team in tackles. Derrick returns after leading the Majors in sacks last season with three and third on the team in tackles for loss.

Centre was chosen second, six points behind Millsaps, as the Colonels earned 39 total points and recorded one first-place vote. Centre is coming off a 2010 season in which the Colonels went 6-4 overall and 3-3 in the SCAC.

Birmingham-Southern checked into the preseason poll in third. The Panthers, who begin their first season as a full-fledged NCAA Division III member, earned 35 points after finishing 6-4 last season. Birmingham-Southern also will be eligible to win the SCAC championship since joining the league prior to the 2007 season.

Trinity followed in fourth-place in the annual poll of the league's head coaches. The Tigers tallied 30 points and picked up the remaining first-place vote.

Austin College was picked as the fifth team with 23 points while Rhodes (15 points) and Sewanee (9 points) rounded out the poll. 

 

2011 SCAC Predicted Order of Finish
			2010 Record Conf. / Overall
		No. of votes
1	Millsaps College Majors	45 (5)	5-1	7-3
2	Centre College Colonels	39 (1)	3-3	6-4
3	Birmingham-Southern College Panthers	35	0-0	6-4
4	Trinity University Tigers	30 (1)	2-4	4-6
5	Austin College Kangaroos	23	2-4	4-5
6	Rhodes College Lynx	15	3-3	4-6
7	Sewanee: University of the South Tigers	9	0-6	1-9
*Last year games against Birimingham-Southern, a Division III provisional member, did not count as conference games. Note: First-place votes (in parentheses) are worth seven points, second-place worth six, on down to seventh-place votes being worth one.