DAYTON -- The University of Dayton opens its 112th season of football at 14th-ranked Indiana State.  The Flyers began varsity football in 1905, but idled the program for three seasons during World War II.

ISU is the highest-ranked FCS team Dayton has ever played. 

Dayton, was 6-5 overall and 5-3 in the Pioneer Football League in 2018.  Three of the losses were to teams that made the FCS playoffs.

The NFL is celebrating 100 seasons of professional football this year.  It is interesting to note that the first NFL game was played between the Dayton Triangles and the Columbus Panhandles at Triangle Park, just four miles from the UD campus.

The Flyers entered the season with the fifth-best winning percentage (.733, 154-56) in FCS football since 2000 AND have produced the most football Academic All-Americans (31) at any level of competition in the same time frame.  The top five in winning percentage are North Dakota State (.792), Harvard (.772), Montana (.744), San Diego (.742) and Dayton (.733). 

UD has not been shut out in a school-record 476 straight games, the best such active string in all of college football. The last team to shut out the Flyers was Marshall, 9-0, on Oct. 16, 1976. That is also the all-time FCS record.

The Pioneer Football League is in its 27th season.  The original (and now the only) Division I strictly need-based football league began with charter members Butler, Dayton, Drake, Evansville, San Diego and Valparaiso.  UD's 123-45 record is the best in PFL history.  The Flyers' 12 league championships are more than any other PFL team.