The Valparaiso Beacons football program is the intercollegiate

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

team for

Valparaiso University Valparaiso University (Valpo) is a private university in Valparaiso, Indiana. It is a Lutheran university with about 3,000 students from over 50 countries on a campus of . Originally named Valparaiso Male and Female College, Valparaiso Universit ...

located in the U.S. state of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. The team competes in the

NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athleti ...

(FCS) as a member of the

Pioneer Football League The Pioneer Football League (PFL) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as a football-only conference. It has member ...

(PFL). Valparaiso's first football team was fielded in 1919. The team plays its home games at the 5,000-seat Brown Field in

Valparaiso, Indiana Valparaiso ( ), colloquially Valpo, is a city and the county seat of Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 34,151 at the 2020 census. History The site of present-day Valparaiso was included in the purchase of land from the ...

Landon Fox Landon Fox is an American football coach who is the head coach at Valparaiso University. Fox previously spent 11 seasons as an assistant at Dayton Flyers football, Dayton, serving in the role of defensive coordinator. Fox was named the head coach ...

has served as the team's head coach since 2019. Valparaiso was known as the Crusaders through the 2019 season.

History

Classifications

*1941–1972: NCAA College Division *1973–1978: NCAA Division III *1979–1992: NCAA Division II *1993–present: NCAA Division I–AA/FCS

Conference memberships

* 1919–1923: Independent * 1924–1925:

Western Interstate Conference The Western Interstate Conference was a short-lived intercollegiate athletic football conference that existed from 1923 to 1927. The league had members in Illinois and Iowa. Indiana Intercollegiate Conference The Indiana Intercollegiate Conference (IIC) was a college athletic conference in the United States from 1922 to 1950. It consisted of schools in Indiana. The charter members of the conference were Indiana State University, Butler University, DeP ...

* 1948–1950: Independent * 1951–1977:

Indiana Collegiate Conference The Indiana Collegiate Conference (ICC) was a college athletic conference in the United States from 1951 to 1978. It consisted solely of schools in Indiana. The charter members of the conference were Indiana State University, Butler University, ...

* 1978–1989:

Heartland Collegiate Conference The Heartland Collegiate Conference (HCC) was a football-only intercollegiate athletic conference that evolved out of the Indiana Collegiate Conference (ICC) and competed between 1978 and 1989. Originally comprising the football-playing arm of the ...

* 1990–1992:

Midwest Intercollegiate Football Conference The Midwest Intercollegiate Football Conference (MIFC) was a football-only NCAA Division II conference formed for the 1990 football season. The conference was formed as the result of a merger of the football only Heartland Collegiate Conference a ...

* 1993–present:

Year-by-year results

Bowl game appearances

Championships

Conference championships

† Co-champions

Divisional championships

From 2001 to 2005, the

(PFL) was divided into North and South Divisions. As winners of the PFL's North Division, Valparaiso has made one appearance in the Pioneer Football League Championship Game, in 2003. Valparaiso shared the Division title with in 2003, but the tie-breaker allowed the Crusaders to represent the division in the championship game. † Co-champions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Valparaiso Beacons football American football teams established in 1919 1919 establishments in Indiana