San Diego ha basically decided it's cheaper to fly their football team across the country than offer as many as 126 scholarships - 63 for the football team and another 63 for women's teams to maintain compliance with Title IX. Even if they played in the Big Sky, few teams are within driving distance. Even "selling" a game to a FBS team for a few hundred thousand dollars only makes up a fraction of the tuition revenue USD currently enjoys from non-scholarship football.
Fun fact about St. Thomas: up until recently they were a D-III school, but got expelled from their conference for winning too much (not a joke, the actual term used was 'athletic competitive parity') and they were granted a rare exception to jump straight to Division I after the school was heavily recruited by D-I conferences.
&Tony’s Music St. Thomas being an old D-3 school doesn’t have the budget to offer football scholarships and the Pioneer Football League is a conference made for those schools that don’t offer football scholarships thus why they’re in it.
Torero stadium while small, is such a pretty stadium. I mean the whole university could be the prettiest campus in america. Great architecture, extraordinarily maintained, beautiful greenery and gardening, and overlooking mission bay in san diego. I can see why everyone wants to play there
That’s a big jump up in competition for St Thomas. D3 to FCS is a a major step. I love watching the MIAC and WIAC games, and their great traditions. It’s too bad that we aren’t going to get anymore Johnnies vs Tommies game. That was on my bucket list.
St. Thomas was too good in all sports, was kicked out of their D3 conference and received an exception from the NCAA to move directly to Division 1. The one school that didn’t want to kick them out was their primary football rival, St. John’s. It was, arguably, the biggest rivalry in D3 football and regularly drew over 15,000 when played @ St. John’s. There wasn’t enough room for that many at St. Thomas for the games against the Johnnies and they started playing at larger venues. The rivalry drew nearly 35,000 to a game at Target Field (home of the Minnesota Twins) and 19,000 to a game at Allianz Field (home of Minnesota United FC). If not for COVID, they would have played the final game against each other at the Viking’s USBank Stadium. I have no doubt there would have been 65,000 in the building for that one.
The Sellick Bowl was originally intended to be a true bowl stadium. In the 1920s Butler had aspirations of joining the Big Ten and after buildingthe gigantic fieldhouse they started on a football stadium. Construction started on the northeast corner and had made it around to the 50 yard line on the other side before they got a new president who decided not to continue construction, leaving it in a J shape. In the 50s they tore down the south endzone seats and built an outdoor theater which stood till 2005 when it along with the entire east stands were torn down. The bowl name remained even though it's just a modest two sided stadium now.
Thanks for this video! I spent many Saturdays watching USD football as a student in the 1980s. I've also been to Davidson when I lived in North Carolina (when Davidson has played USD)
Yeah and this is just a football-only conference. The teams are all in different conferences for other sports; for instance, Butler is part of the Big East and Dayton and Davidson are in the Atlantic 10.
@@dennisud This is the I-FCS conference for schools that don't want their football teams to be at this level. Several years ago, the NCAA made a rule that you can't compete in different divisions in different sports (with some exceptions). The Pioneer League was formed by schools who were playing D3 football but D1 everything else, and they continue not to offer scholarships. So, ironically, they're in this conference to save money.
Hey!! Another video I loved!! Presbyterian hall of fame player Darrel Bridges transferred to UT Chattanooga his senior year. Which is a part of SOCON!!!
Time for a little history.. The Pioneer League was founded in the early 90's as a response to the NCAA cracking down on schools playing below their weight class, so to speak. For many years, most of the schools that make up the conference played in either Division II or Division III despite having Division I level sports in others, like basketball. This changed when the NCAA said that for a school to be in Division I, all of their sports had to be in Division I. This rule forced six schools to form the Pioneer League with five of the six still in the conference (The one who isn't is Evansville, who dropped their program in 1997). They've added members over the years and have seen a few of them graduate up to scholarship football like Austin Peay, Campbell and Mercer while Jacksonville dropped their program two years ago. As for the members themselves.. Butler: More known for their basketball team, which plays in the Big East. They also have a bulldog mascot named Butler Blue, he's awesome. Davidson: More known as the school that had Stephen Curry lead the way to the Elite 8 in 2008. Their other sports are in the Atlantic 10 Dayton: Another A-10 school, their arena is the home site for the First Four of the Men's basketball tournament. Drake: Another school with a bulldog mascot and I believe they vote for the Best Bulldog during the Drake Relays or something like that. Marist: A member of the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference), they are a leftover from when that conference had football, which it dropped in 2007. Morehead State: A member of the OVC that doesn't play within the OVC for football, they're the alma mater for Phil Simms. Presbyterian: The smallest school at the Division I level in terms of enrollment, they're a current member of the Big South that had to drop scholarship football because they weren't any good. BTW, the nickname (Blue Hose) comes from the socks the players wore in the early 20th century but it also has ties to Scottish warriors. St. Thomas: The newest member of the Pioneer League also has their roots in Division III, but for different reasons - they were given the boot by the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for being too damn good. So, the Tommies had to looks for options and oddly enough, the Summit League gave them an invite. Earlier this year, the NCAA okayed this extraordinary move for St. Thomas with the caveat of a 6 year process to become an official Division I school (Normally, a Division II school has to do a four year transition to become a Division I school). San Diego: One of the better known teams in the Pioneer League because of the playoff success they've had - they're the only school in the league to win an FCS Playoff game (and they have 2 wins). Stetson: A member of the ASUN conference, they brought back football in 2013 and really haven't done anything since.. although they have a cool nickname in the Hatters - famous hat maker John Stetson founded the school and all. Valparaiso: Another school more known for hoops then anything else, they're in the Missouri Valley. They also went through a recent nickname change as they were the Crusaders up until recently. The negative connotation of the name forced them to make a change, which they did and a few months ago, they became the Beacons.
My nephew was a long snapper at Morehead State. I've been to Welcome Stadium; it's close to their basketball arena, which is the most horrible place imaginable to host an indoor band competition (you have to get everything down a monstrous hill with a turn halfway down, and then scramble to push everything back up before the next band comes on) yet the WGA World Championships for indoor winds are held there every year.
@@carter-rm9js yeah it really needs a complete overhaul. For as good as the team is they deserve better facilities. Sorry your dad had to deal with that.
That isn’t the original football field, it’s actually across the Miami River from the university (I Live in Dayton) The original stadium is used for Soccer/track and is nestled behind a large brick building. Imo I think they should have stayed even though the seating is about 1/2 or less
The Pioneer League is a D1 league for teams that don’t want to field a legitimate D1 football program at the FCS or FBS level. Pioneer League football is a non-scholarship league. That means it’s pretty much full of guys who want to play D1 football, but aren’t D1-level football players. A friend summarized the league as a bunch of players with dads insistent their “future hall of famers” play D1 football and are willing to pay full freight (meaning they pay full tuition) for the experience.
I was wondering about that; when I was watching this video, I was surprised that St. Thomas (MN) was in this league. They were Division 3 until this season, I guess, but what changed their minds?
ohhhh shoot as a stetson fan i know our stadium is pretty bad, but thanks for covering over it! the PFL doesn't get any love and the main reason why is because we suck
Agree on the horrific Dayton football stadium in the middle of a parking lot, or used car lot, or something. UGLY. Ironically next to one of the best college indoor arenas..
I can’t imagine the budget that these schools have for travel. I know for a fact that PC is a small school so it blows me away that they have to travel so far for away games.
FTWDK, the PFL is composed of institutions that, because of economic or other reasons, do not offer scholarships specifically for football players, and is the NCAA's only football-only conference. Because most conferences at the NCAA Division 1 level require its members' varsity-level sports to offer scholarships to players for those sports (the only other exception being the Ivy League), PFL members compete in other conferences in all of their other varsity-level sports, some of which have had their football stadia featured in other videos on this channel, such as the Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley Conferences.
@@natec4339 The Missouri Valley Football Conference is the Missouri Valley Conference. Teams competing in more than one conference depending on the particular sport is nothing terribly new. And because many major conferences don't have enough schools participating in a certain sport to sanction it - the magic number seems to be a minimum of six - other conferences and federations fill in the gaps, like the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
@@totallynotalpharius2283 It is odd. But schlepping a team around the country probably isn't as expensive as the cost of sixty-three full scholarships to (generally) expensive and prestigious institutions. Just for GP I googled the average tuition at the University of San Diego, and it's USD$51,186 according to the most recent figures. Multiply that by 63 and that's $3,224,718. I'd wager that's why the Toreros are in the PFL instead of the Big Sky, WAC, or a D2 or D3 conference.
