In the south group with 12 teams, the south-west group with 7 teams and the north group with 9 teams, only one preliminary round was played as a single round, while in the west group with 7 teams the preliminary round was played as a double round. After the preliminary rounds participated in the qualification for the major league 1986/87
the first six of the group south in the qualification for the Oberliga Süd ,
in the qualification for the Oberliga Mitte four teams from the group south-west and
in the qualification for the Oberliga Nord the first three of the group west and the first four of the group north;
the other teams took part in the qualifying rounds for the regional league.
In addition, there was a qualification for the Regionalliga Gruppe Mitte, which was newly introduced from the 1987/88 season .
Placement game for the 7th place between the group fourth: EV Bad Wörishofen - EV Germering 7: 5
Regionalliga South-West
Originally, the best teams from the Baden-Württemberg state association and the best teams from the Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse state associations were supposed to take part in the promotion round to the Oberliga mid-1986/87 .
Since it was decided during the current season to dissolve the Oberliga Mitte , it was also decided to reorganize the Regionalliga Süd-West. The clubs from the Baden-Württemberg regional association were to form the South-West regional league in the future, while the other clubs from the Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse regional associations were merged into the newly founded Central Regionalliga.
The Hamburger SV Ib pulled his team back after the first round.
The remaining teams played for qualification with the champions of the Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein regional league, the Berlin regional champions and two best teams from the Lower Saxony regional league