On Thursday the WNBA announced some major changes to their regular season and playoff formats. As the league enters its 20th season this summer, they definitely created a buzz with the shake up. If you aren’t up to date with the announced changes let us get you up to speed. Before I start with the regular season changes let me first explain how the season was played in the past. During the regular season, teams faced cross-conference opponents (East vs. West) once at home and once on the road. The remainder of a team’s schedule consisted of five games apiece against two in-conference opponents and four games apiece versus the remaining three in-conference teams for a total of 34 games. With the new changes to the regular season teams will now play a more balanced schedule.
Games against their five in-conference opponents will be as follows:
- Four games against one team (two home and two away)
- Three games apiece against the four remaining teams (two home and one away versus two teams; one home and two away versus the other two teams)
- Each team’s opponent breakdown was selected at random and will be rotated annually to ensure a fair balance of the schedule.
Games against the six teams in the opposite conference will be as follows:
- Three games against each team (two home and one away versus three teams; one home and two away versus the remaining three teams)
- The opponents for the two formats have been selected at random and will be reversed annually.