The Basketball Africa League (BAL) on Tuesday, November 7, announced that the league’s fourth season slated for March 2024 will be extended to South Africa.
The much-anticipated season will feature top 12 club teams from 12 African nations playing a record 48 games across four countries – South Africa, Egypt, Senegal, and Rwanda in a span of four months.
It will also mark the first BAL games in South Africa and the first time the league is hosted in four different countries.
Also, for the first time, the 12 teams will be divided into three conferences of four teams each following the addition of Kalahari Conference which will be held in South Africa.
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"We are thrilled to expand our footprint in the BAL’s fourth season and allow more fans to experience the excitement of this historic league, including the first BAL games in South Africa where there is already strong affinity for the game,” said BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall.
"We look forward to building on the momentum of our first three seasons and to continuing to deliver a world-class basketball and entertainment product that represents Africa proudly on the global stage.”
According to BAL, each of Nile, Sahara and Kalahari conferences will play a 12-game group phase during which each team will face the other three teams in its conference twice.
The format
The inaugural Kalahari Conference group phase will take place in March, followed by the Nile Conference group phase in April and the Sahara Conference group phase in May.
The top two teams from each conference and the top two third-placed teams from across the three conferences will travel to Rwanda for four seeding games followed by an eight-game single-elimination Playoffs and Finals in May through June.
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For the third consecutive season, the BAL Elevate program will see one NBA Academy Africa prospect join each of the 12 BAL teams.
Over the past two BAL seasons, nine BAL Elevate players contributed to their respective team’s success and went on to qualify for their respective national teams, commit to NCAA Division I schools in the United States, or sign professional contracts, including with NBA G League Ignite.