2023 NCAA Division II football season

The 2023 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 31 and ended on December 16 with the Division II championship at the McKinney Independent School District Stadium in McKinney, Texas. Harding won the title, defeating Colorado Mines, 38–7.

D-II team wins over FCS teams
September 2: Bowie State 22, Delaware State 11 September 2: Virginia State 33, Norfolk State 24 September 2: Central State (OH) 24, Mississippi Valley State 21 September 8: Barton 33, Davidson 31 September 9: Colorado Mesa 28, San Diego 21 OT September 9: Miles 21, Alabama State 17 September 16: Delta State 35, Mississippi Valley State 7

Headlines

 * January 14 – At the 2023 NCAA Convention, the D-II football membership approved a change to redshirt rules to allow freshmen to play in up to three games without losing a season of athletic eligibility.
 * January 26 – Conference Carolinas announced that Shorter University would join from the Gulf South Conference in 2024. This gave the conference 6 football sponsoring members, and accordingly, it was announced that they would begin sponsoring football again effective for the 2025 season, a sport they had previously discontinued in 1975. Inaugural members of the new league would be Barton and Erskine, who currently play in the South Atlantic Conference; UNC Pembroke, who plays in the Mountain East Conference; and Chowan, North Greenville, and Shorter, who all play in the Gulf South Conference.
 * December 14 – The NCAA Division II Championships Committee approved a restructuring of the football super regions effective for the 2025 season once Conference Carolinas begins sponsoring football. The new super region alignment is as follows:
 * Super Region 1: Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Mountain East Conference, Northeast-10 Conference, Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference
 * Super Region 2: Conference Carolinas, Gulf South Conference, South Atlantic Conference, Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
 * Super Region 3: Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Great Lakes Valley Conference, Great Midwest Athletic Conference, Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference
 * Super Region 4: Great American Conference, Lone Star Conference, Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference

Rankings
The top 25 from the AFCA Coaches' Poll.

Qualifiers
* — Indicates a team playing outside of its assigned super region.

Semifinals & Championship
Teams were re-seeded prior to semifinals.

Bowl games
There were four bowl games, which featured teams that did not qualify for the Division II postseason tournament.

The schedule included the inaugural edition of the Florida Beach Bowl, contested between teams from the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) and Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), two conferences mostly consisting of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Preseason and in-season
This is restricted to coaching changes that took place on or after May 1, 2023, 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.