How Does The Scottish Premiership Schedule Split Work?

Carter Lawson · Profile

Published on June 18, 2026

How Does The Scottish Premiership Schedule Split Work?

2026-27 Scottish Premiership Schedule, Split & Fixtures

Updated June 18 for the 2026-27 season.

It is a unique aspect of Scottish football that, late in the season, the top league splits into two parts, then plays more games that are currently not on the schedule. What is up with all of this? Let’s break it down.

Here are the Dates for the 2026-27 Scottish Premiership Season

What is the Scottish Premiership split?

Simply put, the “split” is when the Scottish Premiership table is split in two after 33 games have been played by each club.

The Scottish Premiership expanded from 10 to 12 teams in 2000, and prior to this expansion, each team played each other 4 times for a total of 36 matches. However, this created an issue following the expansion because each team would then be required to play 44 league games.

To work around this issue, the current split system was introduced at the time of the expansion and allows each team to play each other three times, then after 33 games, the table is split into two groups. They are called the Championship Group and the Relegation Group, each with six teams. Each team within a section will then play the other teams in their section once, for a total of 5 additional games. This brings the total number of games in a season to 38.

It is also important to note that once the split occurs — and strangely enough — a team from the bottom six cannot finish ahead of a team in the top six even if they have more points at the end of the season.

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Why does the Scottish Premiership split?

As previously mentioned, the split was introduced to reduce the number of league games played each season, but it was not the only reason. The split was also introduced to theoretically make the end of the season more competitive. With the table being split, the top teams will have to continue to perform well against the best teams in the league if they wish to win the league, and conversely, it gives bottom table teams more of a chance of avoiding relegation and makes the relegation battle more exciting.

However, it has had plenty of critics who voiced their opinions against the fixture disparity which leads to fewer home games, and for the fact that teams in the lower half of the table can finish with more points than teams in the top half but still be “below” them in the final table.