San Diego fronts tight Pioneer League race with Jacksonville out of the picture
(STATS) - The final Saturday of the Pioneer Football League season has the makings of a thrilling end to a championship race.
The two PFL programs to appear in the FCS playoffs the last two years will square off when Butler visits San Diego; rivals Dayton and Drake, who always seems to be a part of the title picture, will clash at Drake Stadium; and Campbell, which at midseason a year ago thought it would be playing for the conference title, will host arguably the league's most talented team in Jacksonville.
Strap on your seatbelt, everyone.
"I'm the old man of the conference," Dayton coach Rick Chamberlin said. "I've been with this conference since it started back in 1993 with six teams, and I can honestly say the competitiveness, the challenges that our conference has against each opponent is as strong as it's ever been. And I've felt like that for the last three or four years, it's been that way."
It would be refreshing for the 11-member, coast-to-coast PFL to have a terrific title race considering its off-the-field woes. Jacksonville may have the best returning squad, but it is ineligible to win the league title for a second consecutive year because it incorrectly awarded financial aid during the 2010-14 seasons. The school would have represented the non-scholarship league in last year's FCS playoffs had it been eligible, but the automatic bid fell to San Diego.
Similarly, San Diego would have been the PFL's first playoff representative in 2013, but it incorrectly awarded financial aid and was deemed ineligible in the season's final week, which led to Butler gaining the bid.
The PFL's preseason coaches poll suggested the title race will be tight this season. San Diego led the way with 89 points, and Dayton and Drake were right behind with 87 and 86 points, respectively.
"A team that can kind of get on an early roll and have some success and then continue to build on that generally ends up being the leaders," Stetson coach Roger Hughes said. "I would also say those teams that have the most upperclassmen generally tend to be the leaders of the league as well."
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PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH
1. San Diego
2. Drake
3. Dayton
4. Campbell
5. Butler
6. Stetson
7. Marist
8. Morehead State
9. Valparaiso
10. Davidson
Ineligible: Jacksonville
