NCAA Division II Football Championship

NCAA Division II Football Championship
Logo used for the 2005 NCAA Division II National Championship Game
In operation	1973–present
Preceded by	Small college polls
Number of playoff teams	28
Championship trophy	NCAA Division II National Championship Trophy
Television partner(s)	ESPNU
Most playoff appearances	Northwest Missouri State (24)
Most playoff championships	Northwest Missouri State (6)
Current champion	Harding (1)

The NCAA Division II Football Championship is an American college football tournament played annually to determine a champion at the NCAA Division II level. It was first held in 1973, as a single-elimination playoff with eight teams. The tournament field has subsequently been expanded three times: to 16 teams in 1988, 24 teams in 2004, and 28 teams in 2016.

The National Championship game has been held in eight different cities. Former sites include Sacramento, California (1973–1975), Wichita Falls, Texas (1976–1977), Longview, Texas (1978), Albuquerque, New Mexico (1979–1980), McAllen, Texas (1981–1985), Florence, Alabama (1986–2013), and Kansas City, Kansas (2014–2017).^[1] Since 2018, the championship game has been played at the McKinney ISD Stadium and Community Event Center in McKinney, Texas.^[2] Since 1994, the games have been broadcast on ESPN.

Prior to 1973, for what was then called the NCAA College Division, national champions were selected by polls conducted at the end of each regular season by two major wire services; in some years the two polls named different number one teams. From 1964 to 1972, postseason bowls crowned four regional champions. NCAA Division II bowl games still exist, but only as postseason contests for teams not qualifying for the championship playoffs.