The chaos began over the summer, when clubs Bari, Avellino and Cesena went bankrupt and failed to register for the new season in mid-July. Rather than keep Serie B at 22 teams and bring in replacements from Lega Pro/Serie C, the decision was made on August 13 to simply start again with the remaining 19 sides.

At the end of the season, three teams are promoted to Serie A and four teams are relegated to Serie C. The top two teams are automatically promoted and the third place team is only automatically promoted if they are more than 14 points clear of the fourth placed team.