With the reorganisation of the German league system in 2012, the NRW-Liga was disbanded once more as the Regionalliga West above it would then only contain clubs from North Rhine-Westphalia.

In turn, the top two teams of the NRW-Liga will gain promotion to the Regionalliga West.

While the top four clubs from Nordrhein and Westfalen were promoted to the Regionalliga, teams placed fifth to eleventh were headed go to the new NRW-Liga.

[2][3] From the four Verbandsliga groups, the champions will each gain admittance, unless it would be a reserve team of a club already qualified for the Oberliga.

The top three clubs from the NRW-Liga gained direct entry to the Regionalliga while the teams placed fourth to seventh had to play-off with the four champions from the leagues below to determine four additional promoted teams.