Division II ( NCAA ) 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 ) level of intercollegiate sports offered in NCAA Division I and to the no athletic scholarship environment offered in Division III . Divisions II and III were formerly known collectively as the NCAA College Division . Nationally , ESPN televises the championship game in football , CBS televises the men ' s basketball championship , and ESPN2 televises the women ' s basketball championship . CBS College Sports broadcasts six football games on Thursdays during the regular season , and one men ' s basketball game per week on Saturdays during that sport ' s regular season . Membership . 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 . For example , Division II schools may give financial aid in football equivalent to 36 full scholarships ( whereas each school in Division I FBS , the highest level , is allowed 85 individuals receiving financial aid for football ) , although some Division II conferences limit the number of scholarships to a lower level . Division II scholarship programs are frequently the recipients of student - athletes transferring from Division 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 ( with the exception of football players transferring from a Division I FBS school to a Division I FCS school , who also do not have to sit out a year ) . Currently there are 282 either full or provisional members of Division II . All Division II schools must field athletes in at least ten sports , with male and female competition in a given sport counting as two different sports . In addition , all coeducational schools must field athletes in at least four sports in each gender . Simon Fraser University became the first institution outside the USA to enter the NCAA membership process . This occurred after the Division II Membership Committee accepted the institution ’ s application during a July 7 – 9 meeting in Indianapolis , Indiana . Simon Fraser , located in Burnaby , British Columbia , began a two - year candidacy period September 1 , 2009 . Prospective members also must complete at least one year of provisional status before being accepted as full - time Division II members . In the fall of 2012 The NCAA President ’ s Council made it official , approving Simon Fraser University as the organization ’ s first international member . Conferences competing in Division II . The newest D - II conference is the Great Midwest Athletic Conference , which was approved by the NCAA Division II Membership Committee in February 2012 , and was an official conference as of September 1 , 2012 . The WVIAC is now set to fold after the 2012 – 13 school year . Nine of its 15 members broke away to become charter members of the Mountain East Conference , which ( pending NCAA approval ) will begin competition in the 2013 – 14 school year . Three other members have since announced their departure for the G - MAC and two others for the PSAC . The other school is tentatively scheduled to go independent . Interaction with other divisions . The NCAA does not strictly prevent its member institutions from playing outside of their own division , or indeed playing against schools that are not members of the NCAA , but it is discouraged in many sports . NAIA . Many Division II schools frequently schedule matches against members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics , which consists of colleges and universities across the USA and Canada that promote competitive and character - based athletics that is controlled by its membership , as opposed to the NCAA that serves as a regulating body . Division I . Division II schools also frequently schedule " money games " , usually in football and men ' s basketball , against Division I schools . In football , D - II teams once occasionally played games against schools that are now in Division I FBS , but this practice has ended because under current NCAA rules , FBS schools cannot use victories over schools below FCS level for establishing bowl eligibility . Today , D - II " money games " are exclusively against FCS schools , whose postseason eligibility is less seriously impacted by scheduling a D - II opponent . In basketball , where conference tournaments play a large role in determining postseason participants , D - I schools have less of a penalty for scheduling an occasional D - II opponent , resulting in more " money games " . In any event , the D - II school is almost invariably the visiting team , and is invited to play with knowledge that it will likely 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 . Such games are funded by Division I schools which can afford such games . In recent years , " money games " in men ' s basketball have also included preseason exhibitions against D - I programs , typically in the same region , that do not count in official statistics for either team . Under NCAA rules , Division I teams are allowed to play two exhibition games in a season , and must host these games . However , prior to the 2011 – 12 season , two D - I men ' s programs in Missouri , namely Missouri and Missouri State , received NCAA waivers to travel to D - II Missouri Southern State University in Joplin , a city devastated by a May 2011 tornado , for third exhibition games . Both games were played as fundraisers for tornado relief efforts . Under normal circumstances , these exhibitions can still provide the D - II program with a financial boost similar to that of an in - season game . The University of Kansas helps the state ' s four Division II members by rotating them onto the Jayhawks ' exhibition schedule annually . Milwaukee , which has been a Division I member since 1990 , has continued its series with their former Division II rival Wisconsin - Parkside as part of their exhibition schedule . When these exhibition games do happen , there are times when the Division II team does win , and to a quality Division I program . In 2009 , a Division II team beat the eventual Big East champion . In 2010 two other Division II teams beat teams that reached the NCAA Division I tournament . In 2011 , another Division II team defeated a Division I team that finished in the top half of the Pac - 12 Conference . In 2012 , another Division II team beat a team in the Atlantic Coast Conferenceref > sports . yahoo . com / blogs / ncaab - the - dagger / miami - exhibition - loss - division - ii - st - leo - aberration - 182644298 - - ncaab . html < / ref > which later defeated several ranked Division I teams . Also in basketball , two of the best - known early - season tournaments for D - I schools , the Great Alaska Shootout and Maui Invitational , are hosted by D - II schools that also compete in the events , respectively Alaska – Anchorage and Chaminade . The Great Alaska Shootout has men ' s and women ' s tournaments , while the Maui Invitational only involves men ' s teams . In the men ' s tournaments , the hosts usually lose all of their games . However , Alaska – Anchorage has been highly competitive in the women ' s Shootout , winning the tournament five times since 2003 . Non - revenue sports competition . Matches between the different collegiate divisions in non - revenue sports are often quite competitive . Indeed , in some sports , among them ice hockey and men ' s volleyball , there is no Division II national championship . In hockey , many schools whose athletic programs are otherwise Division II compete in Division I , and men ' s volleyball has a truncated divisional structure with a Division III championship but no Division II championship ( as opposed to the NAIA , which fully includes men ' s volleyball in its divisional structure ) . In any sport that does not have a Division II national championship , Division II members are allowed to award the same number of scholarships as Division I members .