The regular season started on 11 September 2015 and was completed on 1 March 2016,[1] followed by the play-offs, which finished on 22 April 2016 with EC Kassel Huskies winning the league title.
The teams placed eleventh to fourteenth qualified for the play-downs, also played in the best-of-seven format with the losers of the first round advancing to the second.
The loser of the second round was nominally relegated,[2] but Heilbronn retained its league place once more after the Fischtown Penguins were elevated to the DEL for the following season.
The league champion does not have the right for direct promotion to the Deutsche Eishockey Liga but, in September 2015, the DEL and DEL2 agreed to reintroduce promotion and relegation between the two leagues from the 2017–18 season onwards.
[6] The regular season saw one new club in the league, EHC Freiburg while the Heilbronner Falken, originally relegated at the end of the 2014–15 season, remained in the league after EV Landshut was relegated for financial reasons.