Monday, September 19, 2005

SBL to apply relegation rules, releases provisional season format

Team officials of seven SBL (Super Basketball League) teams gathered for the first committee meeting for the 2005-06 season and came up with a couple conclusions. For the first time the league will install relegation rules. Also the provisional season format was announced.
 
Starting from the end of 2005-06 season, the sixth-place and seventh-place SBL teams will have to play in a double round robin relegation series with the A-League champion. Last-placed team of the series will be downgraded to (or stay in) the A-League. For now, SBL will stay a 7-team league and will not look for expansion.
 
The committee decided the 2005-06 season format as follows:
 
December 1, 2005 - December 4, 2005: Exhibition games.
December 10, 2005 - May 14, 2006: Regular season (Each team faces its opponents five times and plays a total of 30 games).
February 4: All-Star Game
Playoffs:
May 19, 2006 - May 25, 2006: First Round (Best-of-Five)
May 27, 2006 - June 11, 2006: Finals (Best-of-Seven)
 
Other important announcement:
 
-- No import players and Chinese players are allowed to play. All SBL players are required to have Taiwanese IDs.
-- Starting from 2005-06 season, college freshmen can't play in the SBL and the UBA at the same time. A college freshman will play either for his club team or his college team.
-- Any team that boycotts the game or refuses to take the court under protest has to play a 600,000 NTD fine.
-- TV reply will not be used to change calls.
-- Any team that withdraws from the league in mid-season is not allowed to re-enter SBL or play in any CTBA-sanctioned competition in two years.
-- ESPN Taiwan, Videoland and ETSN will share broadcasting right in the 2005-06 season.