ST. LOUIS – Drake University, the defending Pioneer Football League champion, is picked to win the 2024 championship, as selected in the league’s Preseason Coaches’ Poll, released Tuesday and voted upon by the league’s head coaches.

The PFL will present its 2023 Preseason All-PFL Teams on Wednesday.

Drake received eight of the 11 first-place votes from the league’s coaches and 98 of the maximum 100 points available, with coaches unable to vote for their own teams.

St. Thomas, the 2022 PFL Champion, followed Drake in the poll with 87 points, including one first-place vote. Davidson also received a first-place vote and totaled 81 points to finish third in the poll.

Butler (72 points) and San Diego (67) were picked to finish fourth and fifth, with San Diego receiving a first-place vote. The pair rounded out a group of teams that are the clear frontrunners entering the season.

Dayton, with 49 points, opens the second half of the Preseason Coaches’ Poll. The Flyers are followed by a trio of tightly packed teams: Presbyterian (39 points), Marist (37), and Morehead State (35). Valparaiso (22) and Stetson (18) round out the 11-team poll.

The upcoming 2024 season marks the 32nd year of the Pioneer Football League. The league will feature 11 teams, each playing an eight-game schedule to determine the league champion and recipient of the automatic bid to the NCAA FCS Championship.

The 2024 schedule gets underway Thursday, August 29, with a four-game slate followed by the league’s remaining seven teams on Sat., August 31. The 2024 PFL Championship race gets underway with a four-game slate on Sat., Sept. 28.

About the Pioneer Football League

The Pioneer Football League is the only non-scholarship, football-only NCAA Football Championship Subdivision conference. The PFL is a truly national conference with members on each coast and throughout the nation’s heartland. Butler University, the University of Dayton, Drake University, and Valparaiso University were among the league’s founding members in 1993, with Davidson College, Marist College, Morehead State University, Presbyterian College, the University of San Diego, the University of St. Thomas, and Stetson University joining to form the current 11-team league.