New era begins: ABA League 2 unveils new competition format for 2025/26 season

In the next step toward modernizing regional basketball and increasing competitiveness, the ABA League has announced a completely new competition format for the upcoming 2025/26 ABA League 2 season. The new system promises a more interesting and strategically dynamic season, all while ensuring calendar protection for national leagues and FIBA windows.

New Format: League system with four different pots

The ABA League 2 will feature 16 teams, grouped into 4 pots based on current team quality. These pots are designed to ensure a balanced mix of opponents for every club.

All 16 teams will share the same standings and will all compete in the same league system.

Each team will play 8 games during the regular season:

- 2 games vs. teams from their own pot

- 2 games vs. teams from each of the 3 other pots (6 games in total)

Each team will have 4 home and 4 away games.

*Teams from the same country will not face each other in the regular season.

**Exception: If any country has four (4) clubs, one intra-national matchup is permitted.

Playoffs format:

The top 8 teams from the regular season advance to the Playoffs, which include:

- Quarter-finals

- Semi-finals

- Finals

All three stages will be played in a best-of-3 format. The team with the better regular season record will hold the home-court advantage.

In cases where teams are tied in the standings, home-court priority will be determined by the following criteria, in order:

1. Head-to-head record

2. Point-ratio in head-to-head games

3. Overall point-ratio from the regular season

4. Drawing of lots, if the tie remains unresolved

Game days:

All games will be played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in order to protect the schedule and calendar of the national leagues.

National team windows are integrated (and protected) in the season calendar.