It's happening. Details to be announced soon.

Great idea

NBL1 Announced the format for the first NBL1 National Championship.

Mens
West Vs Central
South Vs North
Wildcard Vs East

Womens
Wildcard Vs North
East Vs South
Central Vs West

If standings reflected the championship, as of now we'd have:

Mens
Geraldton Vs Woodville
Hobart Vs Gold Coast
Frankston (Wildcard) Vs Canberra

Womens
SD Spartans (Wildcard) Vs Logan
Albury-Wodonga Vs Bendigo
West Adelaide Vs Warwick

Obviously anything can happen in finals, and this almost certainly wont be the final make-up, but this should make for a really interesting tournament.

I'm not 100% sold on the format, but will give it a chance to play out. For me I'd prefer to see a one and done, NCAA type tournament, even if it means adding a few more from each conference to make it work.

3 from each conference would be great, Champion, Runner Up and next highest, which would give us 15 teams. Throw in the BACOE as the 16th, and we'd have our very own sweet 16 (maybe over 2 weekends), although I know this would add significant cost.

Either way, looking forward to seeing this play out !!

The inaugural Coles Express NBL1 National Champions will be crowned in September at the NBL1 National Finals.

The historic event will take place at the State Basketball Centre in Melbourne, as the Australian basketball community comes together September 9-11 for a weekend which promises to be action-packed and filled with drama.

The conference winners from the women's and men’s divisions in NBL1 North, NBL1 East, NBL1 South, NBL1 West and NBL1 Central, plus the Wildcard Series winners will battle it out for the title of NBL1 National Champions.

All eight Australian States and Territories have a chance to have a club represented in the NBL1 National Final, as NBL1 solidifies its status as Australia’s game.

Each team will play two preliminary games in which they will generate ranking points across Friday and Saturday, before Championship Day on Sunday, where the top two ranked women’s and men’s teams will battle it out.

NBL1 General Manager, Dean Anglin, is excited to host the event and showcase some of Australia’s best basketball in one venue.

"It’s taken a long time to get to this point, taking a concept from paper and making it a reality, but we are extremely proud of turning this ambitious idea into an event that basketball fans across the country can attend and watch," Anglin said.

“It’s a truly unique event and we cannot wait to see which clubs earn their spot in the NBL1 National Final to claim the coveted title of NBL1 National Champion.

“I want to thank the state associations, our clubs and our partners for their hard work and cooperation in bringing the National Final to life, and we look forward to it becoming a staple of the Australian basketball calendar in the years to come.”

Tickets start at just $15.00 for kids and $75.00 a family and are available via Intix here. Different ticket options are available including Hollywood seating and 3-Day passes.

The NBL1 National Final will be streamed across Kayo Freebies, NBL1.com.au and the NBL1 App!

Not a fan of the format,
Finals should be played across Aus at the club venues with lower ranked teams having to travel or have a home and away aggregate.
No atmosphere playing at a neutral location.

It will be way more than a Neutral Venue. Fair chance no Vic mens team will make it and probably no Vic metro womens teams. Be keeping an eye on that "wild card" criterea!

Frankston still need to make the conference final to get the wildcard spot. Based on ladder positions, Mackay and Forestville have better chances on making the final.

Southern Districts or Logan in the women depending on who loses the final.

This will be expensive enough equalised least of all expanding it to a home and away criteria across the country

Frankston still need to make the conference final to get the wildcard spot. Based on ladder positions, Mackay and Forestville have better chances on making the final

"Qualification into the National Finals requires the winner to also qualify for their own conference finals."

https://www.basketballvictoria.com.au/news/nbl1-introduces-wildcard-series-for-2022

I'd read that as they need to make the conference finals, not the finals

What other finals are there to make?

No finals to make if you played the CoE. Laughable.

The East finals system is terrible - top 2 straight into a final 4 weekend without any home finals. 3rd and 4th host prelim finals vs 6th and 5th for the remaining final 4 spots.

So Gunners will likely finish on top, have to travel to Sydney for a semi final, and if we lose that game it's season over. Disappointing for fans of the top 2 teams they don't get the opportunity to see their team play a home final.

Don’t like North conferences’ 8-team NCAA straight knockout system either, although at least top teams get to host finals.

Central’s 5-team system seems the best IMO.

No finals to make if you played the CoE. Laughable

The winningest side Vs the CoE goes into the Nationals as a wildcard. What a joke.

Only if they qualify for their conference's finals.

Southern Spartans Women have just been announced as the Women's Wildcard

As I don't follow NBL1 nationally, I have no idea how competitive the various conferences' finals will pan out but as for the North conf it will be tight as. In our last reg season round, our 3 top teams lost their games and no, it wasn't because they had nothing to play for as cross-overs are always important.

Honestly, any of our top 8 could win this series.

Any other conferences with a tight finish or more predictable?

ps. That's for the men. The women will likely be between Logan and Southern Districts with Townsville a chance.

"Only if they qualify for their conference's finals."
That isn't true what so ever. The CoE played different teams from different conferences. The team that had the best winning score of those teams goes into the Nationals. Nothing to do with conferences qualification at all. Theoretically you could win your conference AND get a wildcard entry. Ridiculous.

No Boba Fett you are in fact wrong. This taken from the nbl1 wildcard page

"Qualification into the National Finals requires the winner to also qualify for their own conference finals. In the event that they do not qualify, or they are the eventual conference champion, the qualification will be awarded to the next highest qualifying team."

That is correct. Nothing to do with the CoE Wildcard winner afaik.

"The team that finishes on top of the NBL1 Wildcard ladder, based on points percentage, will win the position as the sixth women's and men’s teams in the inaugural NBL1 National Finals, set to be held later this year."

The winningest side SO LONG AS they HAVE QUALIFIED for their own conference finals as well. So in this case Frankston will be the men's wildcard if they don't win nbl1 south or if Norths don't defeat CoE by a decent margin on Sunday in the final wildcard game