Continental shift: AUBL unveils new format for 2026-27 season

The Asian University Basketball League (AUBL) will launch its first home-and-away season in November, bringing together 18 university teams from 11 markets across Asia for a 54-game competition.

Announcing the format and schedule on Oct 26, the league said the 2026-27 season will feature two conferences: a 12-team Eastern Conference, which will play home-and-away games from November 2026 to March 2027, and a six-team Southern Conference, which will hold a tournament in Hanoi, Vietnam, from April 7 to 11, 2027.

The season will culminate in Championship Week from Aug 16 to 22, 2027, when 12 qualifiers compete for the continental title.

“This is a landmark moment for university basketball in Asia,” said Jay Li, CEO of AUBL. “For the first time, the continent’s best college teams will be tested home and away, and that changes everything.”

He added that the competition would connect different basketball cultures, expand the sport’s reach and provide student-athletes with more opportunities to travel, compete and learn.

The Eastern Conference will feature teams from China, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia and the Philippines. Its opening event will take place at Sangnoksu Kim Yeon-koung Gymnasium in Seoul, where South Korea’s Yonsei University will host defending champion Shanghai Jiao Tong University on Nov 22, followed by a game against Tsinghua University on Nov 24.

The 12 Eastern Conference teams will be divided into four groups of three. Each team will face its group opponents twice, once at home and once away. The top eight teams by record will qualify for Championship Week, with defending champion Shanghai receiving an automatic berth. If Shanghai finishes among the top eight, the ninth-placed team will take the remaining spot.

The Southern Conference tournament in Hanoi will bring together six university teams, which will be split into two groups of three, with the top two from each group advancing to the Final Four. The top three finishers will secure places in Championship Week. The full groupings and schedule will be announced at a later date.

During Championship Week, the 12 qualifiers will compete in group play before a single-elimination knockout stage to determine the champion.

The new format marks a significant expansion of AUBL’s competition model, taking elite university basketball beyond centralized tournaments and onto campuses across multiple markets. By introducing regular home-and-away matchups, the league aims to build cross-border rivalries, introduce more fans to college basketball and give student-athletes greater international competition experience.