The NBL did it in the past as well, I believe.

Name one League? ROFL

Pretty every competition in the history of the world has done it at some point.
In the first place, its neither corrupt, BS, nor dodgy, usually just a fact of life.

I used to be responsible for scheduling a large junior competition.
We had some divisions so big you didn't even play every other team, but in the small ones it could be 3 or 4 times.
We tried really hard to always have even numbers in each division so there were no byes, but other than that it was luck of the draw.

and yes, obviously the NBL used to be this way also.
If we grew to 10 teams, an even draw would be 36 games. That might be doable but would be a substantial increase. Any more than that and we'll be back to an uneven draw anyway.

The issue you're referring to with the AFL is different. With playing most teams only once, its a big issue whether its a home or away game, and the leagues is skewed because they have 10 Victorian teams. So the pissant Melbourne clubs all want home games against Collingwood to boost revenue.
Not really an issue in the NBL>

We already accept a system in which teams can outspend some others by 2 or 3 times. Would making it very slightly easier for the spooners to make the finals next year, really be such a bad thing?

This should be viewed only one way, through the eyes of a member of a club, regardless of if a team has 3 imports or 2, injuries or are waiting until the new year for a stud import... each club comes to town twice and I get to enjoy all of them. The teams when drawn against one another has shocking last year but that's a different issue.

This should be about how exciting each team is and to get a person to become a member you need to sell that they get to see the great rivals (club or player) come to town and and show your support in bringing them down.

Add new teams, fantastic... please add extra games to my ticket

10 teams can be divided into two conferences

Teams play 4 games against their own conference and 2 games each against the other conference teams.

16 conference games and 10 non conference games.

The current format is fine 7X4 though it's a bit stale and I look forward to more teams and more games.

The part of the draw that needs evening up is say for example Perth v Cairns playing each other 3 times in last 6 games they should work on spreading those out more.

When did the NBL have uneven draws? I can't recall a season where a team played some teams more often than others in the regular season. Admittedly, the 1980s and 1990s are now a little hazy for me. Was it in the first four or five years of the league, when they had two divisions (conferences)?

What's wrong with a 36 game season? Or if it is too long, just play each team three times instead! It’s really not that hard!

10 teams - play each team 3 times and your 'arch rival' a fourth time. Third home/away alternates year by year.

28 games; 14 at home: 8 teams 3 times 1 team 4 time.

Melb v other melb, adelaide v Perth etc

They should split the NBL into 4 conferences of 2 teams, play 75% of their games against the other opponent in the conference and the winner of each conference goes straight into the semi-finals (and the loser of each conference takes an early holiday) regardless of their WL record or table points.

Wait that's basically Super Rugby..

Expand to 20 teams (eventually) and do this:

North Division
Cairns Taipans
Townsville Crocodiles
Brisbane Bullets
Gold Coast Blaze

Central Division
Newcastle Falcons
Sydney Kings
Illawarra Hawks
Canberra Cannons (brings back 3 championships)

West Division
Perth Wildcats
Adelaide 36ers
Fremantle ?
West Adelaide Bearcats (brings back 1 championship)

South Division
Melbourne Tigers (change United back to Tigers)
Hobart Devils
South East Melbourne Magic (brings back 2 championships)
North Melbourne Giants (brings back 2 championships)

South Division
Auckland Breakers (change NZ Breakers to Auckland)
3 other NZ teams


44 games played per team
Play 3 Division opponents 4 times (12 games)
Play other 16 teams 2 times (32 games)

Top 8 playoff format (1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5)
No guaranteed playoff berth for division winners
Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Grand Final are all best of 5.

Hit me with your criticisms ;)

Thanks Anon

I clearly lost track of what the NBL were doing through the mid-2000s.

The NBL lost track of what it was doing in mid 2000s