The bj-league announced the game schedule for the 2006-07 regular season on Tuesday. The season will tip off Nov. 4 with a Saitama Broncos-Toyama Grouses game at Tokorozawa Municipal Gymnasium, Saitama Prefecture and a Tokyo Apache-Osaka Evessa contest at Ariake Colosseum. The regular season concludes April 1. Preseason games begin in September.
Expansion clubs Grouses and Takamatsu Red Arrows increase the second-year league's number of teams to eight. Although there are not clear divisions, the league is devided into two groups (Sendai 89ers, Niigata Albirex BB, Toyama, Saitama in one group, and Tokyo, Osaka, Takamatsu, Oita Heat Devils in the other). Each team will have 40 games, and play eight games within the same group, and four with teams in the other. The playoff schedule will be announced later.