The championship was disputed by 24 clubs divided into four groups of six teams.
The top two placed teams in each group would qualify, and the same process would repeat in the next phases, also divided into groupus of four.
However, since the tiebreaking criteria were unclear, Náutico contested Ponte Preta's promotion, claiming that the first tiebreaking criterion was the number of wins in the whole tournament and not the number of wins in the final phase.
CBF decided to award the promotion and spot in the finals to Náutico.
Inter de Limeira eventually beat Náutico in the finals.