The 2025 NCAA Division II football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, began on August 28 and ended on December 20 with the Division II championship at the McKinney Independent School District Stadium in McKinney, Texas.
Conference changes and new programs
- Conference Carolinas resumed sponsoring football in 2025, after dropping the sport 50 years earlier prior to the 1975 season.
Headlines
- January 17 â At the 2025 NCAA Convention, Division II's football-sponsoring delegates approved a proposal to award automatic bids to the playoffs for the conference champion of each football-sponsoring conference, replacing the earned access model.
- April 23 â In accordance with Division II championship policy, which states that automatic qualifiers must make up no more than 50% of the playoff field, the Division II Executive Board approved the expansion of the football playoff bracket from 28 to 32 teams, effective with the 2025 season.
Kickoff games
Top 10 matchups
Upsets
This section lists unranked teams defeating AFCA Coaches poll-ranked teams during the season.
Rankings
Conference standings
Super Region 1
Super Region 2
Super Region 3
Super Region 4
Postseason
Automatic bids (16)
At-large bids (16)
Bracket
<nowiki>*</nowiki> - Host team
Super Region 1
Super Region 2
Super Region 3
Super Region 4
Semifinals & Championship
Teams are re-seeded prior to semifinals.
Bowl games
Three bowl games were held which featured teams that did not qualify for the Division II postseason tournament. This was up from only two bowls in the 2024 season, with the addition of the First Americans Bowl.
<nowiki>*</nowiki> â Host team
Coaching changes
Preseason and in-season
This is restricted to coaching changes that took place on or after May 1, 2025, and will include any changes announced after a team's last regularly scheduled games but before its playoff games.
End of season
This list includes coaching changes announced during the season that did not take effect until the end of the season.
See also
References