INDIANAPOLIS – Drake University, the three-time defending Pioneer Football League Champion, will face national No. 11 seed South Dakota in the first round of the 2025 Division I Football Championship in a 1 p.m. (ET), Saturday contest at the DakotaDome in Vermillion, South Dakota.
Saturday's game, which can be seen on ESPN+, will be a rematch of a Week 3 meeting between the Bulldogs and the then-No. 15 ranked Coyotes, which South Dakota won 42-21 on Sept. 20. South Dakota raced out to a 42-7 lead midway through the third quarter and fended off a late Drake charge for a 42-21 victory on Saturday at The DakotaDome. Drake's Logan Inagawa completed 15-of-19 passes for 164 yards, ran for 73 yards on 19 carries and was responsible for all three Bulldogs touchdowns.
Drake (8-3, 7-1 PFL) won the PFL regular-season title outright with its fourth-quarter comeback against Morehead State on Saturday. The Bulldogs finished the season as the league's top scoring defense, limiting opponents to 15.8 points per game, while ranking second in total defense with opponents managing 314.7 yards per game. Offensively, Drake is the PFL's top rushing unit, averaging 198.8 yards per game on the ground. Freshman Nick Herman finished the regular-season as the league's top rusher, averaging 85.5 yards per game, with 940 yards in 11 games.
South Dakota (8-4, 6-2 MVFC) finished second in the Missouri Valley Football Conference race, behind national No. 1 seed North Dakota State. It is the Coyotes fourth postseason appearance and they are 4-4 in those previous outings. South Dakota reached the national semifinals last season before falling to national runner-up Montana State.
The winner of Saturday's matchup moves on to face No. 5 seed Mercer in a Noon, Dec. 6 contest at Five Star Stadium in Macon, Georgia.
PFL in the FCS Playoffs
The NCAA Football Championship began in 1978 with a four-team field. It has expanded over the years to its current 24-team format. The Pioneer Football League first received an automatic bid during the 2013 expansion.
2013: Tennessee State 31, at Butler 0
2014: at Montana 52, San Diego 14
2015: Western Illinois 24, at Dayton 7
2016: San Diego 35, at Cal Poly 21
2016: at North Dakota State 45, San Diego 7
2017: San Diego 41, at Northern Arizona 10
2017: at North Dakota State 38, San Diego 3
2018: at Nicholls 49, San Diego 30
2019: at Northern Iowa 17, San Diego 3
2020-21: at Jacksonville State 49, Davidson 14
2021: at Kennesaw State 48, Davidson 21
2022: at Richmond 41, Davidson 0
2023: at North Dakota State 66, Drake 3
2024: at Tarleton State 43, Drake 29
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.