The 2024–25 ABA League Second Division is the 7th season of the ABA Second Division with teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia participating in it.
Format changes Following the expansion in the first division of ABA League, from this season 16 clubs contested the second division as well (12 based on the results in the domestic championships and remaining 4 via wild card invitation).
From this season, instead of the five ("bubble") tournaments, 16 teams have been be divided into the four Regular Season groups, each consisting of four clubs.
In each group, the teams played against each other in a home-and-away round-robin system. Two best-placed teams of each group advanced to the Top 8 phase of the competition. Top 8 teams were then divided into two groups, each consisting of four teams with home-and-away round-robin system as well. The two best-placed teams of each Top 8 group advanced into the Playoffs. The Semi-finals and Finals were played in a best-of-three series format (1–1–1).
Distribution The following is the access list for this season. +Access list for the 2024–25 ABA League Second DivisionClubs entering in this roundClubs advancing from the previous roundRegular season(16 clubs)2 highest-placed clubs from each of the six national leagues (12 in total) 4 clubs with wild cards. No team was relegated from 2023-24 ABA League first division.Top 8(8 clubs)
Club allocation
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round: 1st–9th: Positions in national leagues at the end of Regular Season (or Playoffs). RW: Domestic league Regular Season winner. WC: Wild card.
Regular season Borac WWIN (2nd) Šibenka (9th)WC MZT Skopje Aerodrom (1st) Zlatibor Mozzart (3rd) Bosna Visit Sarajevo (3rd)WC Podgorica (1st) Pelister (2nd) Joker (6th)WC Široki TT Kabeli (4th)RW Sutjeska (2nd) Rabotnički (3rd)WC Kansai Helios (2nd) Cedevita Junior (5th) Teodo Tivat (3rd)WC Vojvodina mts (1st) Ilirija (3rd) 10 teams that hadn't been directly qualified, applied to participate for this season competition: Bosna Visit Sarajevo and Sloboda Tuzla from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Šibenka from Croatia, Teodo Tivat and Primorje 1945 from Montenegro, Rabotnički Skopje from North Macedonia, Vršac Meridianbet, Sloboda Užice and Radnički Kragujevac from Serbia and Šenčur from Slovenia.
After the announcement that wild card fee would cost 25,000 euros, the 9 teams applied for the wild card (all above except for Sloboda Užice and Radnički Kragujevac and with addition of TFT Mozzart Skopje), out of which the board of the ABA League decided that 4 teams (Bosna Visit Sarajevo, Vršac, Tivat and Rabotnički) would receive the wild card.
KK Dinamo Zagreb (fourth-placed team in the Croatian 2023-24 Favbet Premijer Liga) decided not to participate in this season ABA 2 League and chose to play FIBA competition instead. GKK Šibenka was then awarded an additional wild card to replace them.
Just seven days before playing their first match, KK Vršac Meridianbet decided to withdraw from the competition. Board of ABA League decided KK Joker from Sombor to take the vacant spot.
Draw The clubs were divided into 4 pots, based on the results in the NLB ABA League 2 and in the domestic championships in the previous season. While conducting the draw, a national criteria was also taken into account, to prevent two clubs from the same country to be placed within the same Regular Season Group. +Pot 1TeamPos. MZT Skopje(1st) Podgorica (1st) Vojvodina(1st) Zlatibor(3rd)+Pot 2TeamPos. Borac(2nd) Helios Domžale(2nd) Široki(4th) Sutjeska(2nd)+Pot 3TeamPos. Bosna (3rd) Cedevita Junior (5th) Ilirija (4th) Pelister(2nd)+Pot 4TeamPos. Rabotnički(3rd) Šibenka (9th) Vršac(4th) Teodo Tivat(3rd)
Regular season Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Top 8 Group E
Notes
Group F
Playoffs Bracket
References
External links Official website ABA League 2 at Eurobasket.com