It will remain status quo for UNBC's basketball squads for the 2015-16 season.
But when the 2016-17 season rolls around, the Timberwolves will play in a single conference in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Canada West conference.
The changes to the format were approved last week at the conference's annual general meeting.
Canada West said it will feature a 20-game regular season schedule and each team will play four geographical or historical opponents every year, with games against six of the remaining 12 opponents every other year.
For UNBC, their annual opponents will be UBC, Fraser Valley (Abbotsford), Thompson Rivers (Kamloops) and Trinity Western (Langley).
Over the four-year rotation in the schedule, each team will play every team in the conference at least twice, and will visit every gym in Canada West at least once.
"The majority of the members wanted a different format, so we spent six months going through a lot of options for schedules," said Canada West president Ian Reade in a written statement. "We were able to go through a collective problem solving process to get to a format, and come together on this one.
"This allows us to guarantee that traditional and geographic opponents will have the opportunity to play each other annually, while eliminating the perception of having two tiers within the conference."
Also approved was the accompanying playoff format, which will see the top-12 teams playing a bracketed post-season structure over a three-week period. The top-four teams will receive a bye in the first week of the playoffs, which will feature four best-of-three series. The following week will consist of four best-of-three quarter-finals, leading to the final four hosted by the highest remaining seed.
For the 2015-16 season, the existing two-division format will continue with the six-team Explorer Division that UNBC competes in and the 11-team Pioneer Division playing in a 20-game regular season.
Besides UNBC, the Explorer Division includes UBC Okanagan, UFV, MacEwan, Mount Royal and Thompson Rivers.
