Division II is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It offers an alternative to both the highly competitive (and highly expensive) "big-time" level of intercollegiate sports offered in NCAA Division I and the non-scholarship, largely recreational level of competition offered in Division III.

Division II schools tend to be smaller public universities and many private institutions. Athletic scholarships are offered in most sponsored sports at most institutions, but with more stringent limits as to the numbers offered in any one sport than at the Division I level. Division II scholarship programs are frequently the recepients of student-athletes transferring from Divison I schools; a transfer student does not have to sit out a year before resuming sports participation as would be the case in the event of transferring from one Division I institution to another.

Many Division II schools frequently schedule matches against members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which is something of a rival collegiate sports sanctioning authority to the NCAA which specializes primarily in smaller institutions. Division II schools also frequently schedule "money games", usually men's basketball games, against Division I schools, particularly lesser-known ones, early in the season in which they are almost invariably the visiting team and are invited to play with the almost-certain knowledge that they will be defeated but will receive a substantial (at least by Division II standards) monetary reward which will help to finance much of the rest of the season and perhaps other sports as well. Matches between Division I and Division II schools in non-revenue sports are often quite competitive; the difference in the level of competition between the two divisions is often considerably less in these sports than it is in football and men's basketball.

The viability of Division II as an ongoing operation in the medium-to-long term is frequently called into question; it is noted that these institution's athletics programs share many of the major expenses of their Division I counterparts with regard especially to scholarships, facilities upkeep, and travel while receiving for the most part far smaller gate receipts and almost no television revenue. An increasing number of Division II schools are under pressure from administrators, boosters, and other interested parties either to "step up" to Division I or down to Division III; as a result, the NCAA has adopted rules which tend to make it harder for new institutions to join Division I, such as minimum attendance requirements for football and a long waiting period (now eight years) before a new Divsion I institution can participate in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament ("March Madness") or share in its considerable revenues.