1978 NCAA Division II football season

The 1978 NCAA Division II football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division II level, began in August 1978, and concluded with the NCAA Division II Football Championship in December 1978 at Lobo Stadium in Longview, Texas. The Eastern Illinois Panthers defeated the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens, 10–9, to win their first Division II national title.

Conference changes

 * Four conferences, the Big Sky Conference, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, Ohio Valley Conference, and Yankee Conference, transitioned from Division II to the newly-established Division I-AA level of college football. All of their members, alongside seven independents, departed at the same time, a total of 35 schools in all.
 * This was the first season for the Mid-Continent Conference, which was formed by six schools from Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio.
 * This was the first season for the Heartland Collegiate Conference (HCC), which was formed by eight schools from Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Five of its members were formerly in the Indiana Collegiate Conference, which disbanded upon creation of the HCC.

Conference summaries
† While the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) was a Division II conference, Florida A&M (FAMU) had successfully petitioned the NCAA for Division I classification (Division I-AA in football), which took effect on September 1, 1978. FAMU subsequently competed in the 1978 Division I-AA postseason, winning the Division I-AA championship.

Postseason
The 1978 NCAA Division II Football Championship playoffs were the sixth single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college football. The championship game was held at Lobo Stadium in Longview, Texas for the first time.