Tuesday, July 30, 2019
by Cody Bush, PFL Media Relations

For the ninth consecutive year, the University of San Diego has been picked to win the Pioneer Football League regular-season race in a preseason vote of the league’s coaches.

San Diego, which has won regular-season title each of the past three seasons, again received the coaches’ nod to win the 2019 PFL title. With seven first-place votes, the Toreros were chosen ahead of Dayton and Drake, who picked up the remaining three first-place votes.

The Toreros received 79 points of the maximum 100 points possible. Dayton, which was chosen to finish second for the sixth-straight year, received 65 points. Drake was picked to finish third for the second-straight season with 64 points.

Behind the usual suspects in the top three spots, Marist was picked to finish fourth with 52 points. Davidson (48) was picked fifth to round out the top half of the standings while Stetson (44) begins the second half of the 10-team poll in sixth place.

The remainder of the 10-team poll was completed by Butler (37), Jacksonville (30) with Morehead State and Valparaiso tied for ninth place at 15 points.  

The upcoming 2019 season marks the 27th year for the Pioneer Football League – the nation’s only non-scholarship, football-only NCAA Football Championship Subdivision conference. The league will feature 10 teams each playing an eight-game schedule to determine the league champion and recipient of the automatic bid to the NCAA FCS Championship.

The 2019 schedule gets underway Thursday, Aug. 29 when Jacksonville, Morehead State and Valparaiso open their campaigns. The first Saturday of the 2019 season will see five other PFL teams open their schedules. The 2019 PFL race starts in Week 3 (Sept. 14) when Stetson travels to Marist. The first full week of the season is set for Oct. 5.