BUCS volleyball will be getting a premier league in 2014. Actually, it will be getting two of them on both the men’s and women’s side of things.

It’s been announced that there will be new 6-team premier leagues formed for the North and the South to begin next season based on how teams finish this year’s campaign. The Northern Premier League will be selected out of a group of teams from the Northern and Scottish leagues, along with the more northerly of the Midlands league. The Southern Premier League will be drawn from a group of teams from the South East and Western leagues, plus the more southerly of the Midlands league.

Promotion to the new premier leagues will be based on the finish in this year’s Championships. That works out to between 6 and 9 teams being eligible for each premier league, depending on which Midlands teams finish in the top 3 in that league. If more than 6 teams from one of the new premier league regions makes it to Final 8s then which teams get into the league for next year will be based on final standings. If fewer than 6 teams from a region advance, then those who lost during in the round of 16 will be subject to a play-off to decide who make the the cut (unless of course only 6 teams in total are eligible – such as in the case of all the Midlands teams being eligible for the other region).

Here’s the full details.

The question I have is how Championships will be run moving forward, and what the promotion/relegation mechanism will look like.

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John Forman
John Forman

John is currently the Talent Strategy Manager (oversees the national teams) and Indoor Performance Director for Volleyball England, as well as Global Director for Volleyball for Nation Academy. His volleyball coaching experience includes all three NCAA divisions, plus Junior College, in the US; university and club teams in the UK; professional coaching in Sweden; and both coaching and club management at the Juniors level. He's also been a visiting coach at national team, professional club, and juniors programs in several countries. Learn more on his bio page.

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