College Football - Pioneer Football League
History - Important facts - Teams - Winners
The Pioneer Conference was formed in 1993 by the following charter members: Butler University, the University of Dayton, Drake University, the University of Evansville, and Valparaiso University.
In 2001 new member s became part of the conference among which were: Austin Peay State University, Davidson College, Jacksonville University and Morehead State University. A few years later some members moved to a different conference.
After five seasons of playing a North-South divisional format, the league saw its numbers reduced to eight after the 2005 season and those remaining members voted to adopt a full-round robin scheduling format for 2006.
In 1994 the administrative offices were relocated to St. Louis when current commissioner Patty Viverito was named the Pioneer Football League commissioner.
Since that moment the Pioneer League has been a promoter of the creation of a non-scholarship football classification within Division I and adopted the name of Pioneer based on the intent to become the first league in that new division.
The Pioneer Football League is composed of NCAA Division I universities which sponsored intercollegiate football at other levels with the exception of Jacksonville, which started a non-scholarship program just in 1998. Currently, they are committed to the non-scholarship football model.
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