The National Lacrosse League, which has expanded to 13 teams with the addition of franchises in New York and Rochester and the relocation of the Knighthawks to Halifax, is moving to a three-division format starting with the 2019-2020 season. The league announced its realignment Monday morning.
NEWS: @NLL adds third division, restructures regular season schedule and playoff formats | https://t.co/MwAG93g3ka pic.twitter.com/JTHWTfL69H
— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) September 9, 2019
The West Division will remain the same, with Calgary, Colorado, San Diego, Saskatchewan and Vancouver.
The East Division will consist of Georgia, New England, New York and Philadelphia.
A new North Division — comprised of Buffalo, Halifax, Rochester and Toronto — has been created in part to help facilitate further expansion.
“The league has had unprecedented expansion over the last three years,” NLL commissioner Nick Sakiewicz said in a press release issued by the league. “With two more teams coming in this year along with a new market in Halifax, we felt the need to reexamine conference alignments, schedule and playoff formats to prepare for future expansion. We also wanted to create exciting rivalries for the fans, the best travel scenarios for teams and players and competitive match-ups for our 13 franchises.”
The NLL also has updated its regular season schedule and playoff format to accommodate the new structure. Each team will play the other 12 teams in the league at least once during the 18-game regular season.
West Division teams will play two division opponents twice and the other two division rivals three times, while facing each team in the North and East once.
Teams located in the North and East Divisions will play the other three teams in its division three times, while facing non-divisional opponents once.
Eight teams will once again qualify for the playoffs. The three division winners will now automatically receive the top three seeds in the playoffs, based on their records and tiebreakers. The three second-place teams in each of the three divisions will receive the fourth through sixth seeds in the order of their records and tiebreakers. The seventh and eighth “wild card” seeds will be awarded to the next two best records from any division.
The first two rounds of the playoffs will remain single-elimination and teams will not be re-seeded after the opening round. The championship round will remain as a best-of-three series. The highest remaining seed will host Game 1 and, if necessary, Game 3.