PFL WEEK 3 STORY LINES

The 2008 PFL campaign gets underway this week when Campbell – the league’s newest member – travels to Jacksonville. Four other PFL members host contests this week… Dayton hosts Atlantic 10 foe Fordham, Butler and Valparaiso each host a Division III foe, Franklin and Concordia (Wis.) and Drake hosts NAIA opponent William Penn. Davidson is one of two teams to hit the road in week three, traveling 52 miles to face Lenoir-Rhyne. Morehead State has a similar trip when it treks 67 miles to renew its in-state rivalry with Eastern Kentucky, Saturday, the two teams have not faced one another since 1995.

CONFERENCE QUICK HITS

WEEK TWO TOUGH ACROSS PFL: Butler and San Diego were the lone bright spots in week two, as PFL members posted a 2-5 mark in non-conference action. Butler posted the league’s only victory on the road, winning at Albion. San Diego rank Division I’s longest home win streak to 26 games with its victory against NAIA No. 23 Azusa Pacific. The league’s five other members in action all suffered road losses.

BUTLER QB STARTS SEASON WITH STREAK: Sophomore quarterback Matt Kobli got his 2008 campaign started by completing his first 12 passes – tying the Butler record – on his way to a 25-of-32, 230 yard and two touchdown performance. It was Kobli’s third collegiate start and three marks (completions, attempts and yardage) were career highs.

CAMPBELL STILL SEEKING 1ST VICTORY: Campbell enters week three still seeking the program’s first victory after a 32-21 loss at Methodist. The Camels defense surrendered just one touchdown and four field goals in the loss, Methodist’s other two touchdowns coming on an interception return and a special teams score.

MARIST UPDATE: Marist, which joins the PFL in 2009, fell to 0-2 this season with a 28-6 loss to Lafayette, Saturday. The Red Foxes opened the campaign with a loss at San Diego in week one. Junior quarterback Chris Debowski leads the Marist offense with 130.5 yards per game. The Red Foxes travel to St. Francis (Pa.) this week before returning home for a five-game home stand that will take them through October.

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 26: San Diego’s home win streak hit 26 games with its victory against Azusa Pacific, Saturday. The home win streak is the longest in all of Division I. Oklahoma has the nation’s second-longest home win streak with 19 straight wins at  Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Wisconsin is next at the FBS level with a 16-game streak while Massachusetts is next at the FCS level with a 15-game home winning streak.

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.