The 1916–17 Northern Rugby Football Union season was the second season of Rugby league's Wartime Emergency League football.
The fixtures were usually quite local, thus cutting down on travelling time and costs, whilst not wasting precious war resources.
Several of the clubs who had not participated in the competition in the previous season, now re-joined the League :-
Dewsbury (81.25%) again finished the regular season top of the league, with Leeds (80.65%) again second.
The Challenge Cup Competition was suspended for the duration of the war.