MOREHEAD, Ky.—The Pioneer Football League will seek an automatic bid to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. The NCAA will be expanding the playoffs to 20 teams next year with tentative plans to possibly expand to 24 teams.

“One goal in all of our sports is to compete for conference and national championships. The application for an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs will help us push our student-athletes to be better and it will be a motivating factor for our entire athletic department,” said Morehead State Athletic Director Brian Hutchinson. “Despite being non-scholarship, we play exciting, Division I football and to finally have the chance to compete in our championship will improve the visibility and prestige of Eagle football and the rest of our enterprise.”

NCAA rules mandate that half the field for a championship tournament must consist of automatic bid teams. The FCS playoffs currently consist of a 16-team field, but will expand to 20 teams in 2010, increasing the automatic bids from eight to 10. The field will most likely increase to 24 teams in the following years, allowing for the inclusion of two more automatic bid teams. There are currently five FCS conferences without automatic bids, but two of those (Big South, Northeast) will be added during next year’s expansion.

“We are excited that the Pioneer League is applying for and may have the chance to receive an automatic bid to the NCAA football playoffs,” said MSU coach Matt Ballard. “Our goal as a team every year is to succeed on the field and to be recognized for our successes. Winning the PFL and earning a trip to the playoffs would be the ultimate recognition for our program. A playoff bid and the prestige it brings would be a tremendous opportunity for our young men to strive for.”

Morehead State began play in the PFL in 2001. The 2009 season marks the 17th year for the Pioneer Football League – the nation’s only non-scholarship NCAA Football Championship Subdivision conference that offers football as its only sport.

The league expanded to 10 members in 2009 as Marist College began conference play. In addition, the Pioneer Football League will participate for the fourth consecutive year in the Gridiron Classic, a postseason championship game which pits the PFL champion against the Northeast Conference champion.

The PFL is one of only two conferences that sponsor football as its only sport (the Missouri Valley Football Conference being the other). However, the PFL is a truly national conference with members on each coast and throughout the nation’s heartland. The league still retains four of its charter members – Butler University, the University of Dayton, Drake University and Valparaiso University, plus the University of San Diego (joining in 1992) – which were joined in 2001 by Davidson College, Jacksonville University