The 2023 Major League Rugby season marked the inaugural campaign for the Chicago Hounds. Despite adding an expansion side, the league shrank back to 12 teams following the controversial disqualification of both Adam Gilchrist owned teams (Austin Gilgronis & LA Giltinis) prior to the 2022 Championship Series.

As a result, the league followed the same regular season structure as the 2021 season, with each team playing each other team within their conference both home & away, and each team from outside their conference home or away. The Championship Series structure remained the same, a 3-week playoffs with the Eliminator round pitting the #2 & #3 seeds from each conference against each other. The victor then plays the conference #1 seed in the Conference Finals, fighting for a place in the MLR Championship Final.