History
Foundation
The PFL was created as a direct result of an NCAA rule change passed in January 1991, which required Division I schools to sponsor all of their sports at the Division I level by 1993. Charter members included Butler University, the University of Dayton, Drake University, the University of Evansville, and Valparaiso University. [1] The University of San Diego joined in 1992, and the league played its first season in 1993.
The founding schools came from a variety of football backgrounds. For decades, Drake played the sport at the Division I level in the Missouri Valley Conference before dropping to Division III for the most recent seven seasons (1986 through 1992). Dayton had made the same move much earlier, in 1977, and appeared in the Division III championship game five times, winning the title in 1980 and 1989. San Diego had played Division III football the longest, since the creation of the division in 1973. Evansville's program competed in the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) from 1988 through 1992 after several years in Division II. Butler and Valparaiso came to the league from the Midwest Intercollegiate Football Conference in Division II. The three Indiana schools had longstanding football rivalries, having played each other annually for decades in the Indiana Collegiate Conference and Heartland Collegiate Conference.
1997–2001 membership changes
In 1997, the league was reduced to five members when Evansville downgraded football to club status. In 2001, the conference expanded to nine members and was reorganized into two divisions, with the five existing members forming the North Division and newcomers Austin Peay State University, Davidson College, Jacksonville University and Morehead State University forming the South Division. Austin Peay and Morehead State had been playing scholarship football at the FCS level in the Ohio Valley Conference, which continued to be their all-sports home. Davidson, for decades a member of the Southern Conference, had competed for the past several years as a non-scholarship FCS independent. Jacksonville, a relatively new program, likewise had competed as a non-scholarship FCS independent since its inaugural season in 1998. The reorganization of the PFL brought a new championship system in which the best record holders from each division met 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, to return to scholarship football competition in the Ohio Valley Conference. As a result, the conference reverted to a single table with the champion determined via regular season round-robin play. On April 7, 2006, Campbell University announced the revival of a football program dormant since 1950, and on December 5, 2007, accepted an invitation to the PFL for its inaugural season in 2008. [2] In February 2008, Marist College announced that it would join the PFL for the 2009 season, after its all-sports home, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, stopped sponsoring football. [3] Although Campbell moved in 2011 from the Atlantic Sun Conference to the Big South Conference, which sponsored football, it did not join the Big South in football and remained in the PFL through the 2017 season. [4]
2013–2018 membership changes and automatic playoff berth
On June 13, 2011, new programs Mercer University and Stetson University were announced as league members effective 2013, expanding the PFL lineup to 12 schools. [5] In addition, as of 2013, the league champion received an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs. [6] Soon after its PFL membership was announced, Mercer accepted an invitation to join the Southern Conference effective July 1, 2014. [7] During its one season in the league, Mercer set an FCS record for start-up programs by finishing the 2013 campaign with an overall record of 10–2 including an undefeated 8–0 at home.
The next change in conference membership was announced on November 14, 2016, when Campbell revealed 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. [8] The PFL soon recruited a replacement, as revealed in the November 20, 2017 announcement that Presbyterian College would be joining from the Big South, but not until the 2021 season. [9]
Recent history
Before Presbyterian began play in the PFL, the league lost a member when Jacksonville, on December 3, 2019, announced that it was discontinuing its football program, effective immediately. [10] The departure of Jacksonville left the PFL with just nine teams for the 2020 season, which was rescheduled to spring 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After two PFL members chose not to play football at all during the 2020–21 academic year, the conference entered into a scheduling agreement with Presbyterian that included it in the spring 2021 schedule, in advance of its formal entry into the league in the fall of 2021. While PC was not eligible for the PFL title in that season, it was eligible for the league's individual awards and honors. [11] [12]
Presbyterian was 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, the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), 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 for the rest of their sports. The NCAA announced on July 15, 2020 that it had granted a waiver to allow St. Thomas to make the jump from D-III to D-I on a five-year schedule, instead of the four years used for moves from Division II. The Tommies will not be eligible for the FCS playoffs until the transition is completed in 2026. [13]
Rivalries
One in-state rivalry currently exists in the PFL. A second had existed before Jacksonville discontinued its football program.
Butler and Valparaiso first met in 1927, and have played every year since 1951. Since 2006, the schools have played for the Hoosier Helmet Trophy. Butler leads the all-time series 54–30. The rivalry extended to all sports when both schools were in the Horizon League from 2007 to 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, 1992 and 2020. Dayton leads 34–14–1.
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
PFL Gridiron Classic results
From 2006 through 2009, the PFL and Northeast Conference (NEC) staged the Gridiron Classic, an exempted postseason football game that matched the champions of the two conferences which were technically members of Division I FCS, but which were not the recipients of automatic invitations to the football championship playoff at the time.
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(s) | Result(s) |
|---|
| 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 |
| 2020–21 | Davidson | First Round | Jacksonville State | L, 14–49 |
| 2021 | Davidson | First Round | Kennesaw State | L, 21–48 |
| 2022 | Davidson* | First Round | Richmond | L, 0–41 |
| 2023 | Drake | First Round | North Dakota State | L, 3–66 |
| 2024 | Drake | First Round | Tarleton State | L, 29–43 |
* - St. Thomas was the PFL champion in 2022; however, they were ineligible for postseason play due to still being in transition from Division III. Davidson, the runner-up, was awarded the auto-bid in their place.
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