PFL WEEK 2 STORY LINES

Six of the league’s nine teams got their 2008 schedule underway last week, this week Butler, Davidson and Valparaiso will join the fray and each will take to the road. Valparaiso opens its 2008 campaign with a Thursday contest at St. Francis (0-0). The league’s other seven teams in action each play, Saturday. Davidson makes the short trek northward to face UNC-Pembroke (1-0) while Butler stays instate to face Albion (0-0). The league’s toughest task in week two belongs to Jacksonville which will face top-ranked Appalachian State (0-1), Saturday, in Boone, N.C. Elsewhere, Campbell will take its quest for win No. 1 on the road when it meets Methodist (0-0). San Diego puts Division I’s longest home win streak on the line when NAIA No. 23 Azusa Pacific (0-1) visits Torero Stadium. Two PFL teams travel to Pennsylvania in week two: Morehead State takes on Northeast Conference foe Robert Morris (0-0) while Drake meets the Patriot League’s Lehigh (0-0). Dayton has the week off preparing for week three action.

CONFERENCE QUICK HITS

PFL TEAMS FAIR WELL IN OPENING WEEK: PFL teams posted a 5-1 mark in the season’s opening week. That record included San Diego’s win against future PFL member Marist and three victories against scholarship NAIA programs: Dayton downed Central State, Morehead State clipped Southern Virginia and Jacksonville won at Savannah State.

CAMPBELL OPENER SPOILED: Campbell’s opener at newly-named Barker-Lane Stadium was spoiled by visiting Birmingham-Southern in a 12-6 loss, Saturday. It was the Camels first football game in 58 years and they played in front of a sellout crowd of 5,845.

NEW COACHES SPARKLE IN DEBUTS: Both the league’s new coaches picked up victories in their first game at the helm. Drake head coach Chris Creighton had to sweat out a 17-13 victory against Upper Iowa, Thursday. Dayton head coach Rick Chamberlin watched his team roll to a 31-12 victory against NAIA foe Central State, Sunday.

DOLPHINS SNAP LOSING STREAKS: Jacksonville’s win at Savannah State snapped a seven-game road losing streak. The win also was the first road victory for second-year head coach Kerwin Bell. In addition, it snapped the Dolphins’ five-game losing streak in season openers.

DAYTON NEARS 600th ALL-TIME VICTORY, DRAKE NEARING WIN NO. 550: Dayton and Drake both entered the 2008 campaign nearing milestone victories. Below is a look at each program’s current all-time wins total, according to the NCAA:

DAYTON SHUTOUT STREAK STILL GOING STRONG: Dayton avoided a shutout for the 354th consecutive game, Monday, defeating Central State, 31-12. The Flyers were last shutout by Marshall, 9-0, back on Oct. 16, 1976.

TORERO HOME WIN STREAK HITS 25: San Diego’s home win streak hit 25 games with its victory against Marist, Friday. The home win streak is the longest in all of Division I. Oklahoma has the nation’s second--longest home win streak with 18 straight wins at  Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Wisconsin and Massachusetts are tied for third with 15-game home win streaks.

SAN DIEGO PICKED TO WIN PFL: The Pioneer Football League’s coaches tabbed San Diego as the preseason favorite in the PFL Preseason Coaches’ Poll, receiving two of the nine possible first-place votes. However, the coaches believe it will be a close race with the top four teams separated by just five points:

PFL WEB SITE REMODELED: during the offseason, the Pioneer Football League’s Web site underwent a major face lift, courtesy the league’s new web partner, Streamline Technologies, Inc. The league’s home address, pioneer-football.org, remains the same. But that’s about the only thing that didn’t change. The new site includes team pages for each of the league’s members and a new composite schedule section where each day’s complete schedule is available. More changes will come as the league settles into its new home on the world wide web this season.

NCAA RULE CHANGES FOR 2008: There are several rule changes for the 2008 season that will make noticeable effects on the game. Among them are the banning of “horse-collar” tackles, a simplification of chop blocking rules and the elimination of the 5-yard face mask penalty for incidental contact (it will either be a 15-yard penalty or no foul at all). The major rule change involves the play clock which will have both 40 and 25-second settings. Whenever the ball becomes dead, the play clock will reset to 40 seconds and will start immediately. This includes when a runner is down in the field of play or out of bounds, a fumble out of bounds, backward pass out of bounds and after an incomplete pass. After a team has picked up a first down the game clock will stop but the play clock will go to 40 seconds and will start counting down.

DIVISION I FCS, PLEASE: Although some people may accidentally still refer to it as I-AA football, the term that represents the level of Division I football in which the Pioneer Football League competes has been retired. Beginning with the 2006 National Championship game, the term Football Championship Subdivision (or FCS) is to be used. FCS is the only Division I football rank to host a NCAA-sponsored national championship (one of 88 championships the NCAA sponsors). The division formerly known as I-A was changed to Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and those teams compete for the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) national championship. Teams who play at the FCS level can offer a maximum of 63 scholarships (FBS teams can offer 85) and compete in a 16-team playoff at the end of the season to determine the national champion.