Tercera División de México

Tercera División is Mexico's fourth tier in the Mexican League System. The Tercera División (Third Division) is divided into 15 groups. For the 2009/2010 season, the format of the tournament has been reorganized to a home and away format, which all teams will play in their respected group. The 15 groups consist of teams who are eligible for promotion, teams who are affiliated with teams in the Primera División and Liga de Ascenso (Primera División A), which are not eligible for promotion and teams for a promotional tournament, which make up group 15 and are not eligible for promotion as well.

Teams

Participating clubs for the 2010-2011 tournament: ^[1]

Group I

Group II

Group III

Group IV

Group V

Group VI

Group VII

Group VIII

Group IX

Group X

Group XI

Group XII

Group XIII

Group XIV

Group XV

** Teams with an affiliate in the Primera Division or Liga de Ascenso and that are not eligible for promotion.
*** Teams in Group XV are part of the promotional 2009/2010 tournament and are not eligible for promotion.

Current Format

Tercera División currently features 244 teams divided into 15 groups. Group 15, which consist of 12 teams, is the Promotional Tournament group and are not eligible for promotion. There are 10 teams with filials (affiliates) in the Primera División (First Division) or Liga de Ascenso (First Division A), who are also not eligible for promotion. The Tercera follows the usual double round-robin format in which each club plays every other club twice within their own group, with the exception of Group 13. Group 13 will be divided into two subgroups with 7 teams. The teams will be divided in accordance to their geographical zone. The teams in each subgroup of Group 13 will then play each other in the double round-robin format within their own subgroup. Teams receive three points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a loss. If a game ends in a draw both team are awarded one point for the draw in regulation time and will then move on to the execution of penalties. The team who wins in the penalty series will be awarded a point in addition to the point won for drawing during regulation time. Teams are ranked by total points won.

Qualification for Promotion

Two teams from the Tercera will be promoted, Tercera División Campeon (Champion) and Subcampeon (Runner-Up). The champion will be promoted directly to the Liga Premier de Ascenso and the runner-up will be promoted to the Liga de Nuevos Talentos.

Of the teams that are eligible for promotion, 64 teams will qualify for play-offs to determine which two teams will be promoted. The play-offs will be played in a home and away format, the winner being determined by the aggregate score. The top four teams from Groups 1 - 14, with the exception of Group 13 which will qualify the top two teams from each subgroup, the 7 5th place teams from the groups that have 18 teams, and the overall best 5th place team from either Group 1, 3, or 11.

First Round of Play-Offs

For Groups I, II, XII, and XIV the top 4 teams will play-off amongst the teams in their own group as shown above.

Groups III - VII

For Groups III, IV, V, VI, and VII the teams will be repositioned from 1 to 20, into a single table, depending on their final overall record in regular season play.

Groups VIII & IX

• 1 vs. 4
• 2 vs. 3
• 3 vs. 2
• 4 vs. 1

For Groups VIII the top 4 teams will face off against the top 4 teams of Group IX as shown above.

Groups X & XI

• 1 vs. 4
• 2 vs. 3
• 3 vs. 2
• 4 vs. 1

For Group X the top 4 teams will face off against the top 4 teams of Group XI as shown above.

Group XIII

• 1 (Sub Group "North") vs 2 (Sub Group "South")
• 2 (Sub Group "North") vs 1 (Sub Group "South")

For Group XIII the top two teams from one subgroup will face off against the top two teams of the other subgroup as shown above.

The 5th place teams will play against the 5th place team in the group that immediately proceeds their own group as shown above.

Round of 32

In this round the remaining 32 teams will be split into 2 groups of 16. Teams qualified from Groups I to VII will make up Group 1 and teams qualified from Groups VIII to XIV will make up Group 2. The teams will be repositioned into these groups depending on their final overall record in regular season play.

Round of 16

For the Round of 16 the teams will remain in the same group, the only difference being is the repositioning of the qualified teams.

Quarter-finals

Same format as the Round of 16.

Semi-finals

Same format as Quarter-finals.

Final

The final will be disputed between the winning team of Group 1 and the winning team of Group 2.

• 2 vs. 1
• 1 vs. 2

Promotion

The team that wins in the aggregate score will be crowned champion and will be promoted to the Liga Premier de Ascenso and the runner-up of the final will be promoted to the Liga de Nuevos Talentos.

List of Champions

Tercera División champions^[2]

References

External links

• Tercera División de México Official Website (Spanish)