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Pioneer Football League
The Pioneer Football League (PFL) is an intercollegiate athletic conference formed in 1991 for the sport of football. Its members compete in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). 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 ("grants-in-aid") to football players.
Most of the PFL's members are private schools. Morehead State University is the only public school in the conference.
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. 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.
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.
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. 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. 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.
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. In addition, as of 2013, the league champion received an automatic bid to the FCS 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 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. 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.
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Pioneer Football League
The Pioneer Football League (PFL) is an intercollegiate athletic conference formed in 1991 for the sport of football. Its members compete in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). 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 ("grants-in-aid") to football players.
Most of the PFL's members are private schools. Morehead State University is the only public school in the conference.
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. 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.
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.
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. 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. 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.
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. In addition, as of 2013, the league champion received an automatic bid to the FCS 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 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. 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.