Before the start of the season, the league was divided into two seasons (north and south), each with twelve teams. After the regular season in the "everyone against everyone" mode with a return leg, the top six teams played a promotion round, with the results of the main round being taken. After the promotion round, the top and bottom of the table of the two seasons played crosswise with the two worst teams in the 1998/99 basketball Bundesliga in a qualifying round with two groups of three teams from two teams for the 1999/2000 basketball league . The six worst teams of the two second division seasons took part in a relegation round. Two teams descended into the assigned regional leagues regularly per season. The results of the main round were taken into the relegation rounds.
The sporty relegated TSV Speyer kept the class thanks to the rise of DJK s.Oliver Baskets Würzburg . First division relegated Ruhr Devils had already withdrawn his team from playing during the 1997/98 basketball Bundesliga , the team from the home club TuS Herten continued to play as "Hertener Löwen" in the major league.
The BG Koblenz withdrew their team after the second day of play, so that the group south played with eleven teams.
VfR Limburg did not achieve a victory in the group south in the regular season. This had last happened in the 1985/86 season . There the TV Marbach, also as a climber in the group south, achieved not a single success in the regular season, but two championship games less.
1 SSV Weißenfels missed promotion in the qualifying round, but then moved up to the first basketball league for SV Oberelchingen, which withdrew from the first division.
Relegation round
The results of the main round were taken into the relegation rounds.