The 2018 NCAA Division II football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athlete, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic sports, ...

(NCAA) at the Division II level, began on August 30, 2018, and ended with the Division II championship on December 15, 2018, at the McKinney Independent School District Stadium in

McKinney, Texas McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas. It is Collin County's third-largest city, after Plano, Texas, Plano and Frisco, Texas, Frisco. A suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, McKinney is about north of Dallas. ...

, hosted by the

Lone Star Conference The Lone Star Conference (LSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the southwestern United States, with schools in Te ...

. Originally, the game was awarded to another bid by the

Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Its fourteen mem ...

and

Children's Mercy Park Children's Mercy Park is a soccer-specific stadium in Kansas City, Kansas, United States, and is the home of Sporting Kansas City. The stadium is located near Kansas Speedway, on the far west side of Wyandotte County, Kansas. It opened during ...

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of ...

but, due to field repairs, that contract was terminated in September 2018. Texas A&M–Commerce Lions were the defending champions from the previous season.

Headlines

* October 3 –

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LI ...

announced that it would merge its two current athletic programs—the

LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds The LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds were the athletic teams representing Long Island University's campus in Brooklyn, New York in intercollegiate athletics, including men's and women's basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, and track; women's-only bowl ...

, full but non-football members of the Division I FCS

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Fo ...

(NEC), and

LIU Post Pioneers The LIU Post Pioneers (also Long Island–Post Pioneers and formerly the C.W. Post Pioneers) were the athletic teams that represented the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, located in Brookville, New York, in NCAA Division II intercolle ...

, full members of the Division II non-football

East Coast Conference The East Coast Conference (ECC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of ...

and football members of the

Northeast-10 Conference The Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states ...

—effective with the 2019–20 school year. The new program will compete under the LIU name with a new nickname, inheriting the Division I and NEC memberships of LIU Brooklyn. Following the athletic merger, the former Post football team will become the LIU football team, competing in the NEC as an FCS member.

Conference changes and new programs

Membership changes

Division II team wins over FCS teams

*September 1: ** Morehouse 34, Arkansas–Pine Bluff 30 *September 22: **

Truman State Truman State University (TSU or Truman) is a public university in Kirksville, Missouri. It had 4,225 enrolled students in the fall of 2021 pursuing degrees in 52 undergraduate and 11 graduate programs. The university is named for U.S. Presiden ...

34, Valparaiso 20

Conference standings

Super Region 1

Super Region 2

Super Region 3

Super Region 4

Playoffs

The 2018 NCAA Division II Football Championship was the 46th edition of the Division II playoffs. The playoffs began on November 17 and concluded with the championship game on December 15. The field consisted of 28 teams, seven from each of the four super regions. The participants in each region were determined by the regional rankings; if a conference's highest-ranked team was ranked in the top nine, that team qualified via the "earned access" provision, and all other participants were selected directly from the rankings. The top seed in each region received a first-round bye. After the quarterfinals, the regional winners were reseeded one through four, with No. 1 meeting No. 4 in the semifinals and No. 2 meeting No. 3.

Headlines

Conference changes and new programs

Membership changes

Division II team wins over FCS teams

Conference standings

Super Region 1

Super Region 2

Super Region 3

Super Region 4

Playoffs

Participating teams

Bids by conference

Bracket

See also

References