Eurocup now open to 48 teams

Next season’s Eurocup will go through a change in format as the competition announced today that the number of teams will be increased from 32 to 48. The decision has been made to bring “more games and more excitement” to the 12th edition of the competition by increasing the Regular Season roster of teams to 48.

The Eurocup organization said the move comes after numerous requests from clubs in all FIBA Europe nations. The addition of extra teams at the Regular Season stage will lead to a new grouping format for the Eurocup in the 2013/2014 season. The number of teams in each group will now grow from four to six, which in turn will mean more games for each club.

Indeed, that is great news for the fans, who will now get 10 rounds of action at the group stage as opposed to the six games that teams must play now. Aside from merely increasing the amount of teams, Eurocup has also changed the format for the entire competition.

The Regular season will get another shake up in the form of a new regional system that will divide the group stage into two regional conferences, something that has been designed to ease travel distances and costs for teams. The top three from each group will head into the round of 32.

However, the Eurocup innovations do not stop there as the competition has also opened its doors to the Euroleague. Perhaps the most exciting of all the overhauls to the competition is the news that the six best Euroleague teams to not make the last 16 of the premier competition will drop down to the second tier Eurocup at the last 32 stage, joining the 24 teams that came through the Eurocup groups.

The Eurocup organisers say this will increase the standard of competition in the later stages and give Euroleague teams the chance to continue in continental Basketball for the season. All the above changes were approved in 2011 by the ULEB and ECA General Assemblies and will be implemented for the 2013/2014 season.