The 1978 Bucknell Bison football team was an American football team that represented Bucknell University as an independent during the 1978 NCAA Division I-AA football season.

Bucknell played its home games at Memorial Stadium on the university campus in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

During its fourth year under head coach Bob Curtis, the Bison compiled a 5–5 record.^[1] John Cieslewicz, Mike Cosimano and Brian Shaffer were the team captains.^[2]

This was the first year of competition for Division I-AA, later to be renamed the Football Championship Subdivision. Bucknell, along with its in-state rivals Lafayette and Lehigh, moved up to I-AA after having previously competed as independents in NCAA Division II.

The Bison's 1978 schedule included opponents from Division I-A, Division I-AA, Division II and Division III.

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 16	at VMI	Alumni Memorial Field Lexington, VA	L 14–25		[3]
September 23	Rutgers	Memorial Stadium Lewisburg, PA	L 13–27	9,500	[4]
September 30	at Davidson	Richardson Stadium Davidson, NC	W 21–20	4,600	[5]
October 7	at Cornell	Schoellkopf Field Ithaca, NY	L 0–24	12,500	[6]
October 14	Lafayette^	Memorial Stadium Lewisburg, PA	L 7–14		[7]
October 21	at Gettysburg	Musselman Stadium Gettysburg, PA	W 37–7	5,286	[8]
October 28	at No. 3 Lehigh	Taylor Stadium Bethlehem, PA	W 13–6	11,000	[9]
November 4	Northeastern	Memorial Stadium Lewisburg, PA	W 34–9		[10]
November 11	Colgate	Memorial Stadium Lewisburg, PA	W 7–0	2,500	[11]
November 18	at Boston University	Nickerson Field Boston, MA	L 10–27	3,178	[12]
Homecoming ^ Parents Weekend Rankings from Associated Press Poll released prior to the game