It covered the northern states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and the city of West Berlin.

The league was created from twelve clubs from the West, seven from the North and one from Berlin, reflecting the playing strength of the old Regionalligas.

Bundesliga Nord ranked the following Verbandsligas and Oberligas: In 1978 these leagues were reduced to four: In 1981, the two 2.

Nine clubs from the south and eight from the north plus the three relegated teams from the Bundesliga were admitted into the new league, the 2.

SG Wattenscheid 09, VfL Osnabrück, Alemannia Aachen, SC Fortuna Köln and SC Preußen Münster all played every single one of the seven seasons of the league.

Here are the results of this round: The league placings from 1974 to 1981:[2] Source:"2nd Bundesliga Nord".