The BBL Championship season is to commence on Friday 23rd September 2005 and run through until Sunday 9th April 2006.  The decision was made to start the season earlier than due to England and Scotland's participation in next March's Commonwealth Games.

Just as last season, the eleven teams competing for the BBL Championship  will play each other four times, twice at home and twice away, with the top eight  to qualify for the playoffs.  

The BBL Cup is the first of the peripheral competitions to tip-off and all games remain one-off knock-out situations.  This competition will be contested solely by BBL teams and in the first round the fixtures are between the bottom six teams from last season’s BBL Championship table, with
Guildford Heat replacing Thames Valley Tigers.  The remaining five teams will enter the competition at the next stage.

The draw for the first round of the BBL Cup is as follows:

Scottish  Rocks v Birmingham Bullets 
Guildford Heat v Leicester Riders 
Milton Keynes Lions v Plymouth Raiders 

The only competition to see a significant change to its structure for the 2005/06 season is the BBL  rophy.  It remains a regionalised group competition that sees the highest finishing teams progress to the semi-final stage but the format has been amended.

To begin with the competition will comprise of fifteen teams, compared with twelve last season. Four teams from EB Division 1 have been invited to compete for the prestigious Trophy with the eleven BBL clubs.  Those four are Essex & Herts Leopards, London United, Teesside Mohawks and Worthing Thunder.

The teams will be split into three regional groups of five and will play each other once either home or away.  The groups are as follows:

Group 1      Group 2             Group 3
Chester      Birmingham      Brighton 
Newcastle  Essex & Herts   Guildford
Scottish R  Leicester           Worthing
Sheffield    London T             Plymouth
Teesside   Milton K                London U  

The top team in each group, along with the highest second place finisher, after their four games
will qualify for the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, the British Basketball League and England Basketball League have confirmed that all major finals during the 2005/06 season will again be held as joint events..

The BBL Cup Final will be contested on Sunday 4th December, once again at the  National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, and will be accompanied by the Finals of England Basketball’s National Cup for Men and Women.  

The BBL Trophy Final will be played at the Coventry Skydome on Sunday 5th February.  This competition commences just three weeks into the season and Springfield Honda Newcastle Eagles will hope to make the long journey to defend their crown in the BBL Trophy.  Also up for grabs at the Skydome will be the EB Trophy title, currently resident with the City of Sheffield Arrows after their 2005 success.

The culmination of the British basketball season, the Finals Weekend, returns to the National Indoor Arena in 2006.  The BBL Championship Playoff semi-finals take place on Saturday 29th April with the winners going after the silver and gold basketball on Sunday 30th April, in tandem with the EBL play-off climaxes.