Pioneer Football League
The Pioneer Football League is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I Football Championship Subdivision as a football-only conference. It has member schools that range from New York, North Carolina, and Florida in the east to California in the west. It is headquartered in St. Louis, in the same complex that also contains the offices of the Missouri Valley Conference and Missouri Valley Football Conference. Unlike most other Division I FCS conferences, the Pioneer League consists of institutions that choose not to award athletic scholarships to football players.
Most of the PFL's members are private schools. Morehead State University is currently the only public school in the conference.
History
Foundation
Following an NCAA rule change passed in January 1991, which required Division I schools to conduct all sports at the Division I level by 1993, the conference was formed by charter members Butler University, the University of Dayton, Drake University, the University of Evansville, and Valparaiso University. The University of San Diego joined in 1992, and the league played its first season in 1993. The six original schools which played in the 1993 season had previously sponsored football at the Division I, Division II and Division III levels.Membership changes
Original contractionIn 1997, the league reduced to five members when the University of Evansville downgraded football from Division I to club status; Evansville explored upgrading football back to Division I in 2007, but decided against it.
2001 expansion
In 2001, the conference nearly doubled in size and was reorganized with the five pre-2001 members forming the North Division, and newcomers Austin Peay State University, Davidson College, Jacksonville University and Morehead State University forming the South Division. The reorganization spawned a new championship system in which the best record holders from each division would play in a title game for the conference championship.
2005–2008 membership changes
On April 8, 2005, Austin Peay announced its departure from the league effective after the 2005 season; Austin Peay returned to scholarship-granting competition in 2007 as a member of the Ohio Valley Conference in which it competes in other sports. As a result, the conference reverted to round-robin play; the divisions and championship game were abolished. On April 7, 2006, Campbell University announced the reinstatement of football effective in 2008, and on December 5, 2007, accepted an invitation to the PFL. In February 2008, Marist College announced that it would join the PFL for the 2009 season, after the MAAC stopped sponsoring football. Although Campbell moved in 2011 from the Atlantic Sun Conference to the Big South Conference, which sponsors football, it did not join the Big South in football and remained in the PFL through the 2017 season.
2013 membership changes & automatic playoff berth
On June 13, 2011, Mercer University and Stetson University were announced as league members bringing membership to 12 schools. In addition, as of 2013, the league has an automatic bid into the FCS division I playoffs. Soon after its PFL membership was announced, Mercer accepted an invitation to join the Southern Conference effective July 1, 2014. During its one season in the league, Mercer set a Division I win-loss record for start-up programs; Mercer finished the 2013 season with an overall record of 10–2 including an undefeated 8–0 record at home, also a Division I record held jointly with Auburn University, which likewise went undefeated at home in 2013.
On July 1, 2014, Mercer University joined the Southern Conference for all sports, including football.
The next change in conference membership was announced on November 14, 2016, when Campbell announced it would transition to scholarship football and add that sport to its existing Big South membership effective with the 2018 season, temporarily reducing the PFL membership to 10. Barring any further changes to conference membership, the PFL would have returned to 11 members in 2021, following the November 20, 2017 announcement of Presbyterian College that it would join the conference starting with the 2021 season. Presbyterian will remain in the Big South Conference for all other sports.
2019: Jacksonville drops football
On December 3, 2019 Jacksonville University announced that they were discontinuing their football program immediately. According to a university release, the university employed independent consultants who conducted a data-driven evaluation of how it invested in Division I athletics to arrive at the decision.
2021: Further expansion
Presbyterian will be joined as a new PFL member in 2021 by the University of St. Thomas, a Twin Cities school that had been expelled from its longtime Division III home of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference effective in 2021–22. Shortly after the MIAC announced St. Thomas' expulsion, the Summit League, a non-football Division I conference, offered the Tommies membership. The NCAA announced on July 15, 2020 that it had granted a waiver to allow St. Thomas to make the jump to D-I on the same four-year schedule normally used for moves from Division II. The Tommies will not be eligible for the FCS playoffs until the transition is completed in 2025.
Member schools
Current members
Former members
Future Members
; Note- Evansville dropped football following the 1997–98 season.
- Jacksonville dropped football following the 2019–20 season.
Membership timeline
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id:Full value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
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id:AssocF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only
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bar:2 color:AssocF from:1991 till:end text:Dayton
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bar:4 color:AssocF from:1991 till:1998 text:Evansville
bar:5 color:AssocF from:1991 till:end text:Valparaiso
bar:6 color:AssocF from:1992 till:end text:San Diego
bar:7 color:AssocF from:2001 till:2006 text:Austin Peay
bar:8 color:AssocF from:2001 till:end text:Davidson
bar:9 color:AssocF from:2001 till:2020 text:Jacksonville
bar:10 color:AssocF from:2001 till:end text:Morehead State
bar:11 color:AssocF from:2008 till:2018 text:Campbell
bar:12 color:AssocF from:2009 till:end text:Marist
bar:13 color:AssocF from:2013 till:2014 text:Mercer
bar:14 color:AssocF from:2013 till:end text:Stetson
bar:15 color:AssocF from:2021 till:end text:Presbyterian
bar:16 color:AssocF from:2021 till:end text:St. Thomas
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Rivalries
One in-state rivalry currently exists in the PFL. A second had existed before Jacksonville discontinued its football program.Butler and Valparaiso first played in 1927, and had nine meetings prior to 1951. That year, the two teams began playing every year, and in 2006 began playing for the Hoosier Helmet Trophy. Butler currently leads 47–24. The two schools had an all-sports rivalry as well when both were in the Horizon League together from 2007–2012.
Jacksonville and Stetson had a football rivalry that ran from 2013, when Stetson began PFL play, to 2019, after which Jacksonville dropped football. The schools have been conference rivals in other sports since 1998, when Jacksonville joined the ASUN Conference, home to Stetson since 1985.
Butler and Dayton also have a rivalry based on proximity to each other. The teams have met every year since 1977 with the exception of 1991 and 1992. Dayton leads 26–11–1.
Conference championships
PFL champions
League titles by school
* – Won at PFL Championship GameItalics=Co-champions
PFL Championship Game
Postseason games
The Pioneer Football League has had alliances with the Gridiron Classic and the Sports Network Cup. In addition, league members are allowed to accept at-large invitations to other college bowl games and teams are eligible to compete in the FCS playoffs.Through the 2012 season, the NCAA did not offer the league an automatic invite to the FCS playoffs and never offered an at-large bid to any of its teams, effectively barring the league from the tournament. Starting in 2013, the Pioneer League received an automatic bid to compete in the Division I Football Championship as the playoffs expanded from 20 teams to 24. The PFL won its first playoff game in 2016, as San Diego advanced past the first round of the playoffs.
The PFL was a participant in the NCAA Division I FCS Consensus Mid-Major Football National Championship, along with the Northeast Conference and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, two other conferences without automatic playoff bids. The Consensus championship has since been discontinued; the NEC first earned an automatic postseason bid in 2010, while the MAAC no longer sponsors football.
Members pre-PFL postseason results
Below are postseason accomplishments by past and current members prior to the formation of the Pioneer Football League.PFL Sports Network Cup results
- See Sports Network Cup
PFL Gridiron Classic results
NCAA Division I Football Championship results
Since 2013, the PFL champion has received an invite to the FCS playoffs; previously, PFL teams had to receive an at-large bid, which no team ever received.| Season | PFL Champion | Round | Opponent | Result |
| 2013 | Butler | First Round | Tennessee State | L, 0–31 |
| 2014 | San Diego | First Round | Montana | L, 14–52 |
| 2015 | Dayton | First Round | Western Illinois | L, 7–24 |
| 2016 | San Diego | First Round Second Round | Cal Poly North Dakota State | W, 35–21 L, 7–45 |
| 2017 | San Diego | First Round Second Round | Northern Arizona North Dakota State | W, 41–10 L, 3–38 |
| 2018 | San Diego | First Round | Nicholls | L, 30–49 |
| 2019 | San Diego | First Round | Northern Iowa | L, 3–17 |
Historical standings
Conference facilities
Future members Presbyterian and St. Thomas in gray.| School | Football Stadium | Capacity |
| Butler | Bud and Jackie Sellick Bowl | 7,500 |
| Davidson | Richardson Stadium | 6,000 |
| Dayton | Welcome Stadium | 11,000 |
| Drake | Drake Stadium | 14,557 |
| Marist | Leonidoff Field | 5,000 |
| Morehead State | Jayne Stadium | 10,000 |
| Presbyterian | Bailey Memorial Stadium | 6,500 |
| O'Shaughnessy Stadium | 5,025 | |
| San Diego | Torero Stadium | 6,000 |
| Stetson | Spec Martin Memorial Stadium | 6,000 |
| Valparaiso | Brown Field | 5,000 |