The WNBA made three important announcements on Friday. With the league continuing to grow, the WNBA announced that the regular season will add four games, going from 40 to 44 total contests. The first round of the postseason will now be a 1-1-1 format, while the WNBA Finals is set to be a best-of-7 format.
The Minnesota Lynx are currently playing the New York Liberty in the WNBA Finals. These changes will not take place until 2025, so the best-of-7 Finals format will have to wait.
Let's take a closer look at each of the changes.
More regular season games
Rumors of the regular season adding more games have swirled throughout the past couple of years. The rumors began to catch even more momentum amid the immense growth of the league this past year. Attendance records were shattered and it became clear that adding more games would be beneficial.
For now, the WNBA season is set to implement a 44 game regular season beginning in 2025. The change represents a four game increase. It would not be surprising to see even more games added down the road as the league looks for further expansion.
1-1-1 WNBA first round format
What exactly is a 1-1-1 format and why was this change made?
The current first round format is 2-1, meaning the team with the higher seed has home court advantage in the first two games of the first round. As a result, the lower seeded team gets home court advantage for a potential deciding Game 3, as the first round winner needs to earn two victories in the series.
The 1-1-1 format awards the team with the higher seed home court advantage in both the first and third games. This change allows the higher seeded team to have home court advantage to start and possibly end the series.
New WNBA Finals format
The WNBA is set to implement a seven game series in the Finals. Leagues such as the NBA and MLB already use this format in their championship series, and now the WNBA is adding it as well.
2024 will be the final season in which the WNBA Finals features a best-of-5 series. The best-of-7 adds further excitement as each team battles to win four games. The new format will use a 2-2-1-1-1 format, with the team with the higher seed earning home court advantage in Games 1 and 2 as well as potential Games 5 and 7.