Starting with the
2016–17 season, the EuroCup's first phase is the
Regular Season, in which 20 teams participate. The participants include 20 clubs automatically entered into the Regular Season. Each team plays two games (home-and-away) against every other team in its group. At the end of the Regular Season, the field is cut from 20 to 16. The next phase, known as the
Top 16, then begins, featuring the 16 survivors of the Regular Season in four-team groups. As in the Regular Season, each Top 16 group is contest in a double
round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance to the third phase, the
Playoffs. Each playoff series is
best-of-three, and the winners of each series advance to the next round persistently until the Finals. Home advantage in the series goes to the best placed team in the Top 16. The
Finals features the two remaining series winners in a
best-of-three series with home advantage in the series to the best placed team in the Top 16.
Previous EuroCup formats Historically, the competition began with a group phase in which the starting field was reduced to 16 teams. The survivors then advanced to a knockout phase. In the inaugural
2002–03 season, the knockout phase consisted entirely of two-legged ties. In the following
2003–04 season, the final became a one-off game, but all other knockout ties remained two-legged. In the
2007–08 season, the initial phase, now called the Regular Season, was only used to reduce the field to 32 teams. The survivors were paired into two-legged knockout ties, with the winners advancing to another set of two-legged ties. The survivors then entered the first-ever Final Eight phase in the competition's history, consisting of one-off knockout games. The following
2008–09 season, was the first in which preliminary rounds were conducted. That year saw two preliminary rounds held, the first involving 16 teams, and the second involving the eight winners, plus eight teams that had received byes into that round. The survivors of the second preliminary round joined 24 direct qualifiers in the Regular Season. This season also saw the introduction of the Last 16 group phase, and proved to be the last for the Final Eight. The last stage of the EuroCup, the EuroCup Finals, was reduced from eight teams to four, starting with the
2009–10 season. This stage was directly analogous to the
EuroLeague Final Four, and like that stage of the
EuroLeague, consisted of one-off knockout semifinals, followed by a single-game final. Unlike the EuroLeague Final Four, in which the third-place game and final are held two days after the semifinals, the corresponding games of the EuroCup were held the day after the semifinals. In the
2012–13 season, the final was decided by a single game format, after double-legged semifinals and quarterfinals. For the
2013–14 season, the competition increased from 32 to 48 teams in the Regular Season phase. Another innovation that started in the 2013–14 season, was that the clubs were divided into two regional conferences, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference, for the Regular Season phase. The size of the groups grew to six teams, where the first three qualified teams joined the Last 32 stage. In addition, the eight
EuroLeague clubs that did not qualify for the EuroLeague Top 16 phase, joined the remaining 24 EuroCup teams and the Finals were decided by a double-legged series. For the
2014–15 season, the competition contained 36 teams at the group stage. There were 6 groups, each containing 6 teams. The 36 teams consisted of the 7 teams that were eliminated in the
2014–15 Euroleague season qualification rounds, and 29 teams that qualified directly to the 2014–15 EuroCup, either through 2013–14 season results, or through
wild cards. The top four teams from each of the Regular Season groups with the eight
EuroLeague clubs that did not qualify for the EuroLeague Top 16 phase qualified to join the Last 32 stage. For the
2015–16 season, the competition contained 36 clubs automatically entered into the Regular Season and the eight
EuroLeague clubs that did not qualify for the EuroLeague Top 16 phase qualified to join the Last 32 stage.
European professional basketball club rankings Arena standards Effective as of the
2012–13 season, all EuroCup clubs must host their home games in arenas that have a regular
seating capacity of at least 2,500 (all seated), and an additional minimum capacity of 200
VIP seats available. By comparison,
EuroLeague licensed clubs host their home games in arenas that seat at least 10,000 people, while EuroLeague associated clubs must have arenas that seat 5,000. ==Results==