Basketball Champions League Draw explained and seedings revealed

The Official Draw Ceremony for the 2020-21 Basketball Champions League Qualification Rounds and Regular Season will take place on Wednesday July 15 at the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball in Mies, Switzerland.

The 2020-21 Basketball Champions League competition will consist of 32 teams. Twenty-eight (28) teams are directly qualified for the Regular Season, with the last four (4) teams set to qualify through two Qualification Rounds.

During all stages of the Draws, the country protection principle will apply, safeguarding that no teams from the same country face each other, with the exception of Turkey that will have two teams participating in one group of the Regular Season.

For both the Qualification Rounds and the Regular Season Draws, teams have been placed into pots, based firstly on the BCL Club Ranking and, for clubs that have not yet participated in the competition, on the BCL Country Ranking.

The 2020-21 BCL season will start on September 15 with the first of the two Qualification Rounds.

Sixteen (16) teams are split into four (4) pots according to the BCL Club and Country Rankings and will be drawn into eight (8) pairs. The games will take place according to a home & away format.

For the first round of Qualifications (QR1), teams from Pot 3 will be drawn against teams from Pot 2, and teams from Pot 4 will face teams from Pot 1. Clubs from Pot 1 and 2 will be seeded, and will play the second leg at home. Games will be played on September 15 and 18. The eight (8) winners will then qualify for the second Qualification Round (QR2).

Draw procedure:

An unseeded club will be drawn first, and a seeded club will be drawn second, in order to form Game 1. The procedure will be repeated until all eight (8) QR1 pairs are formed.

For the second round (QR2), the winners of Pot 3 vs Pot 2 will face the winners of Pot 4 vs Pot 1. The winners from Pot 4 vs Pot 1 will be seeded, and will play the second leg at home. Games will be played on September 22 and 25. The four (4) winners will then qualify for the 2020-21 Basketball Champions League Regular Season and join the twenty-eight (28) directly qualified teams in the main draw.

Draw procedure:

An unseeded pairing will be drawn first, then a seeded pairing will be drawn second. The procedure will be repeated until all four (4) QR2 pairings are formed.

Twenty-eight (28) clubs have qualified directly for the 2020-21 Basketball Champions League Regular Season. They will be joined by the four (4) winners of QR2. They are split into eight (8) pots according to the BCL Club Ranking and, when no Club Ranking is available, to the BCL Country Ranking. They will be drawn into four (4) groups. The games will be played in a round-robin format.

Draw procedure:

Teams in Pot 8 (winners of Qualification Round 2) will be drawn first in order to safeguard the country protection for the rest of the Draw and will be split in the four (4) groups. The draw will then continue with Pot 1 until Pot 7, filling the next available group while respecting country protection.

The Draw for the 2020-21 Basketball Champions League Regular Season will be completed once all teams have been drawn. The Regular Season will tip off on October 13.

The Official Draw Ceremony will be streamed live on www.championsleague.basketball from 11:00 CET.