INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA Division II football playoffs will expand from 28 to 32 teams beginning with the 2025 season to accommodate the format change that will award automatic bids to 16 conferences.
According to Division II policy, bracket expansion must be considered when automatic qualifiers make up more than 50% of the field. That prompted the expansion to 32 teams, the NCAA announced Wednesday.
Division II football programs in January approved a proposal that requires all conferences be represented in the championship bracket. Division II football was the only team championship event across all three NCAA divisions that did not use automatic qualification.
Division III has a 40-team field for the playoffs, while Division I’s Football Championship Subdivision has a 24-team bracket.
Division I’s College Football Playoff, which operates independently and is not an NCAA championship event, expanded from four teams to 12 last year.
The playoff schedule will remain the same, except that the four No. 1 seeds will no longer receive first-round byes. This year’s championship game is Dec. 20 in McKinney, Texas.