'Hounds fall to No. 9; Hutch breaks in at No. 20

After losing to No. 3 Butler, 24-7, at El Dorado Saturday night, it was inevitable that Fort Scott Community College's football team would drop down in the NJCAA/jcfootball.com poll this week.

Released Tuesday, Fort Scott (8-1) falls from No. 4 down to No. 9 after suffering its first loss of the season.

The Greyhounds were No. 12 in the J.C. Grid Wire poll last week. The new rankings in that poll -- which also includes the over 70 California programs that are not members of the NJCAA -- had not been released as of Tuesday evening.

The top three teams in the NJCAA poll remain the same. No. 1 Navarro (Texas) defeated then-No. 6 Blinn in a Southwest Junior College Football Conference contest, 24-21, Saturday night. No. 2 Snow (Utah) defeated then-No. 17 Eastern Arizona, 30-23, in a Western States Football League game.

Navarro (9-0) received all seven first-place votes to remain in top while Snow (9-0) stays at No. 2 and Butler (8-1) remains No. 3 after winning its eighth consecutive Jayhawk Conference championship.

The new No. 4 team is Georgia Military (7-1), which was idle last week. Harper (Ill., 9-1) moves up two spots to No. 5.

The Region VI Playoffs begin Sunday with fourth-seeded Garden City at top seed Butler and third-seeded Hutchinson visiting second-seeded Fort Scott. Both games kick off at 1:30 p.m.

Hutchinson (6-3) beat then-then No. 14 Garden City (6-3) by a 17-0 score at Garden City Saturday night. As a result Garden fell out of the poll and Hutch was put in at No. 20.

Saturday's game will also be Hutchinson head coach Rion Rhodes' first game back in Fort Scott since leaving here after the 2006 season -- his only one here -- for his alma mater. The Blue Dragons are on a four-game winning streak after a 2-3 start. Hutch has lost to Fort Scott --a 20-0 verdict in week four -- Butler and Highland.

The winners of Sunday's games meet at Wichita State University for the Region VI Championship on Nov. 16.

Texas, Mississippi, Iowa/Illinois and Minnesota are also conducting playoff games this weekend. The Western States Football League (Arizona/Utah) and Northeast Conference (Pa./N.Y./Mass.) don't have playoffs.

Most bowl games will be held the weekend of December 6. Kansas schools are most likely to appear in the ones in Texas, Utah or Arizona.