Suwanee, Ga. – As the Millsaps Majors Softball Team prepares for it's opener next weekend at East Texas Baptist, they were voted to finish second overall in the Eastern Division of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference in its annual preseason rankings. The Majors were 10-6 in the SCAC a year ago in the Western Division.

Based on exclusive voting by the head coaches of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), Birmingham-Southern College edged out Southwestern University by a single vote as the team to beat in the race for the 2012 conference softball title.

Head coach Kimball Cassady's Panthers received five of the 10 coaches' first-place votes followed by Southwestern University who received four. Trinity University received the final first-place vote.

As for the division races, Southwestern received four of the five first-place votes while tallying 24 points to narrowly beat out Trinity (21 points, one first-place vote) as the preseason favorite to win the West. Hendrix College, with 13 points, was voted third followed closely by Austin College (11 points) and first-year SCAC member University of Dallas (six points).

In the East, preseason favorite Birmingham-Southern garnered all five first-place votes (25 points). Millsaps College, who is returning to the East after competing in the SCAC West a season ago, was voted second with 17 points. Rounding out the rest of the East Division is Rhodes College (16 points), Centre College (12 points) and Sewanee: University of the South (5 points).

One thing that is certain, the SCAC will crown a new champion in 2012. In its last season as a member of the conference, DePauw University claimed its third SCAC softball title in the last four years as Haley Buchanan's three-run homer, her first hit of the tournament, lifted the Tigers to a 3-2 win over Trinity in the championship game.

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