PFL WEEK SIX STORY LINES

The Pioneer Football League schedule gets underway in earnest, Saturday, as all four scheduled contests are league outings. Butler and Drake meet up in their annual Bulldog Battle. Drake has owns the series lead, 12-4-1, and has won the last five meetings in the series. Butler last won a 48-44 decision in Indianapolis back during the 2002 campaign. Dayton will put its 10-game home winning streak on the line when it hosts Campbell which will play the second of back-to-back games west of the Appalachian Mountains. Morehead State opens its PFL slate when it hosts Davidson. Morehead State leads the all-time series, 6-3, but the two teams have split the last five meetings. San Diego puts Division I’s longest home win streak (26 games) at risk when it hosts Valparaiso. The Toreros lead the series, 10-5, and has won the last four meetings dating back to the 2003 season.

CONFERENCE QUICK HITS

WEEK FIVE’S SNAP RECAP: In conference action, San Diego and Davidson both picked up PFL wins while Butler, Campbell and Morehead State each notched non-conference W’s. Dayton saw its 10-game streak stopped in non-conference play at Duquesne. San Diego scored the game’s first four touchdowns en route to a 43-17 victory at Drake. USD senior wideout John Matthews set the school’s career touchdown record, catching his 38th and 39th touchdowns. Drake senior quarterback Ben Ostermann, making his fourth career start, amassed 258 yards total offense. Davidson needed 21 straight points to complete a 38-35 come-from-behind victory against Jacksonville. Davidson sophomore kicker Ben Behrendt kicked a 23-yard field goal with 42.5 seconds remaining to seal the victory and pick up the league’s weekly special teams award. Jacksonville sophomore running back Rudell Small saw a 217-yard, three-touchdown performance go for naught. Campbell posted its first victory in 58 years with a 36-27 non-conference win at Carthage. Freshman linebacker Milton Brown picked off three passes and ran two back for touchdowns, tying a NCAA FCS record and picking up the league’s weekly defensive honor. Butler produced its highest point total of the season in a 41-15 victory at Missouri S&T. Sophomore quarterback Matt Kobli posted 323 yards total offense, including 120 yards rushing, and was named the league’s offensive player of the week. Morehead State downed St. Francis (Pa.), 36-21, behind junior halfback Evan Sawyer’s three touchdown performance. Dayton got three field goals from junior kicker Nick Glavin but could not hold on in a 24-16 loss at Duquesne.

MARIST UPDATE: Marist, which joins the PFL in 2009, but the Red Foxes suffered a 28-16 loss to Sacred Heart at Tenney Stadium, Saturday. Marist senior running back Obozua Ehikioya scored his 41st career touchdown, tying late J.J. Allen for first place on Marist’s all-time list.

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 356th consecutive game, Saturday, in its 24-16 loss to Duquesne. 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, Sept. 6. The home win streak is the longest in all of Division I. Oklahoma has the nation’s second-longest home win streak with 20 straight wins at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Wisconsin is next at the FBS level with a 16-game streak while Massachusetts is second 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.