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.
History 1990s 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.
2000s 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.
2010s 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.
Starting in 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.
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.
2020s 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.
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. After the NCAA reduced the transition period to four years in January 2025, the Tommies completed the transition that July, making them eligible for the FCS playoffs for the first time in the 2025 season.
Member schools Current members InstitutionLocationFoundedJoinedTypeEnrollment NicknameColorsPrimaryconferencewhenjoiningthe PFLCurrentprimaryconference Butler University Indianapolis, Indiana 1855 1991Private 5,554 Bulldogs Horizon Big East Davidson College Davidson, North Carolina 1837 2001 1,950 Wildcats SoConAtlantic 10 Dayton, Ohio 18501991 8,353 Flyers Horizon Drake University Des Moines, Iowa 1881 3,164 Bulldogs Missouri Valley Marist University Poughkeepsie, New York 1929 2009 6,200 Red Foxes Metro Morehead State University Morehead, Kentucky 1922 2001 Public 8,218 Eagles OVC Presbyterian College Clinton, South Carolina 18802021Private 1,172 Blue Hose Big South St. Paul, Minnesota 1885 6,534 Tommies Summit San Diego, California 1949 1992 4,904 Toreros WCC Stetson University DeLand, Florida 1883 2013 4,330 Hatters ASUN Valparaiso University Valparaiso, Indiana 1859 1991 2,917 Beacons Summit Missouri Valley
Notes
Former members InstitutionLocationFoundedJoinedLeftTypeNicknameColorsPrimaryconferencewhenjoiningthe PFLCurrentprimaryconference Austin Peay State University Clarksville, Tennessee 1927 2001 2006 Public Governors OVCUAC Campbell University Buies Creek, North Carolina 1887 2008 2018Private Fighting Camels ASUN CAA Evansville, Indiana 1854 1991 1998 Purple Aces Missouri Valley Jacksonville University Jacksonville, Florida 1934 2001 2020 Dolphins ASUN Mercer University Macon, Georgia 1833 2013 2014 Bears ASUN SoCon
Notes
Membership timeline
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 56–30. 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 34–15–1.
Conference championships
PFL champions SeasonChampionRecord1993Dayton5–0–01994ButlerDayton4–1–01995Drake5–0–01996Dayton5–0–01997Dayton5–0–01998Drake4–01999Dayton4–02000DaytonDrakeValparaiso3–12001DaytonChampionship Game2002DaytonChampionship Game2003ValparaisoChampionship Game2004DrakeChampionship Game2005San DiegoChampionship Game2006San Diego7–02007DaytonSan Diego6–12008Jacksonville7–12009ButlerDayton7–12010JacksonvilleDayton8–02011San DiegoDrake7–12012ButlerDrakeSan Diego7–12013ButlerMarist7–12014San Diego7–12015DaytonSan Diego7–12016San Diego8–02017San Diego8–02018San Diego8–0 2019 San Diego 8–02020/21*Davidson4–1 2021 DavidsonSan Diego 7–1 2022 St. Thomas 8–02023Drake 8–02024Drake 7–12025Drake7–1
(*) Due to COVID-19, the Pioneer Football League suspended the fall 2020 football season. Dayton and Marist opted out of the spring season. Presbyterian played a full PFL schedule, but was ineligible for the conference title, and its games were not counted in PFL standings.
League titles by school School Championships Championship years Dayton 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001*, 2002*, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2015 San Diego 2005*, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 Drake 1995, 1998, 2000, 2004*, 2011, 2012, 2023, 2024, 2025 Butler 1994, 2009, 2012, 2013 Jacksonville 2008, 2010 Valparaiso 2000, 2003* Davidson 2020×, 2021 Marist 2013 St. Thomas 2022 Campbell – Morehead State – Evansville – Austin Peay – Stetson – Presbyterian –
* – Won in PFL Championship Game × – played in spring 2021 Italics – Co-champions
PFL Championship Game SeasonNorth DivisionScoreSouth DivisionLocation2001Dayton46–14JacksonvilleDayton, Ohio2002Dayton28–0Morehead StateMorehead, Kentucky2003Valparaiso54–42Morehead StateValparaiso, Indiana2004Drake20–17Morehead StateMorehead, Kentucky2005San Diego47–40Morehead StateSan Diego, California
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.