The regular season uses a double round-robin format, in which each team plays the others home and away.

There is relegation and promotion between both the Rugby Pro D2 and Fédérale 1, the fourth-level competition.

The winner of each semi-final earns automatic promotion to the next season's Pro D2 if they are eligible financially to do so.

The bottom two clubs of the Pro D2 and the top two of Fédérale 1 then enter Nationale for the next season.

Normally, the teams that finish in 13th and 14th places in the table are relegated to Fédérale 1 at the end of the season.