PFL WEEK 4 STORY LINES

Week four will be a quiet one across the league with only four contests scheduled after Butler’s outing against Hanover was cancelled, Monday (see below). Highlighting the week’s offerings is Campbell hosting its first Pioneer Football League contest against San Diego. Dayton puts its nine-game win streak on the line when it hosts Northeast Conference foe Robert Morris. Fresh off its conference win in week three, Jacksonville returns to non-conference action for the week at UNC Pembroke. Valparaiso hosts Marian (Ind.) in its final non-conference outing. Davidson and Drake each have the week off before hosting their conference opener in week five while Morehead State takes the week off before making its second trip to Pennsylvania next week.

CONFERENCE QUICK HITS

WEEK THREE’S SNAP RECAP: The 2008 PFL schedule got underway as Jacksonville downed Campbell, 52-0. Elsewhere, the league posted a 4-3 mark in non-conference outings. Dayton ran its overall win streak to nine games overall by downing Fordham, 23-20, – its ninth straight win at Welcome Stadium. Morehead State posted 14 tackles for loss against Eastern Kentucky but fell just short in a 16-8 loss. Davidson won at Lenoir-Rhyne, 20-16, for just the second time in school history. 2007 PFL leading scorer Scott Gray missed his second straight game and Butler dropped a 31-28 decision to Franklin. Valparaiso won its first-ever meeting with Concordia (Wis.), 34-10, in a matchup between the Lutheran-affiliated universities. Drake posted its first shutout since 2006 in a 36-0 victory against William Penn.

BUTLER-HANOVER CONTEST CANCELLED: Butler’s football game against Hanover, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Butler Bowl has been cancelled due to significant storm damage that has impacted the Hanover community. The game will not be rescheduled this season.

MARIST UPDATE: Marist, which joins the PFL in 2009, picked up its season’s first victory in a 30-22 decision at St. Francis (Pa.), Saturday. The Red Foxes trailed 16-0 midway through the third quarter before scoring all of their 30 points in a 15:05 span. Senior running back Obozua Ehikioya rushed for two touchdowns and now has 38 career scores, three shy of the Marist FCS record. The Red Foxes return 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.