‘Last Chance U’ Coach Buddy Stephens Fired From East Mississippi Community College

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East Mississippi Community College fired longtime coach and Last Chance U. star Buddy Stephens after ripping school and conference leaders...

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Last week, Stephens shared vocal criticism of his conference’s new ten-game schedule that would complicate matters for teams that were hoping to play in the National Junior College Athletic Association playoffs. East Mississippi Community College has won five national championships during Stephens’ 18-year tenure.

Stephens called administrators who made the change “idiots” and said that the reasoning was because the school presidents did not want to pay for travel expenses for the national playoffs via The Commercial Dispatch of Columbus, Mississippi. He also called the thought process behind the switch “junkified.”

“Some of the presidents in the state didn’t want to have to go to the national playoffs because they didn’t want to travel the first week,” Stephens said. “This is what really happened. If you really want to write something, write the truth – and this is what happened. The presidents decided they didn’t want to have to spend a lot of money to travel, so they did our system, our playoffs and our yearly schedule in order for them to be able to back out of the (NJCAA) playoffs if they wanted to and stay in our playoffs. But if they were going to be a No. 1 or No. 2 seed and they were going to get to host and they didn’t have to travel, then they’d get out of our playoffs and opt into the national playoffs so they can host.”

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