The regular season began on 5 September with Waikato hosting a match against Northland.

To cut down on travel, the teams were split into North and South pools for the 2020 season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus no promotion or relegation was applied.

The Farah Palmer Cup standings are sorted by a competition points system.

In the case that separation is still not made, the winner of the head-to-head result between the teams will get rights to be ranked above.

[3] The finals format sees the top two teams from each pool qualify for cross-over semi-finals.

The top placed teams in each pool, based on table points, receive a home semi-final.