Bundesliga, the champion of the Eastern Regionalliga, which was allowed to move upwards directly, and which the champions of the State Leagues () of Salzburg, Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Carinthia, Upper Austria () and Styria () those Play Offs () had to complete in each case. In the 1977–78 season, the states of Salzburg, Tirol and Vorarlberg merged their Landesligen to Alpenliga as the 3rd division. In the 1980–81 season, the Western Regionalliga was once again introduced as the third division. The Eastern Regionalliga championship was not held from 1980–81 to 1983–84 and it would not be until the 1984–85 season that it would be reintroduced. Up until the 1995–96 season, the champions of the Western and Eastern Regionalligen earned a direct promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga. The Central Regionalliga, however, would not be reintroduced until the 1994–95 season. The champions of the regional organizations, the state football associations () of Upper Austria, Carinthia (with East Tyrol ()) and Styria had their only promotional spot to the 2nd division decided in play off matches. Between the 1996–97 and 2003–04 seasons, the three champions of the Regionalligen together with the last one of the First Division (since the renaming of the First Division as Erste Liga the second highest division in Austria) played those Play Off matches to accomplish the two remaining promotional/relegation spots. After an expansion of the First Division to twelve clubs it was decided that - from the 2005–06 season - due to deprivation of pro league licenses () (at the time there were 10 slots), the winners of the regional leagues went up directly again. The First Division contracted back to ten teams in 2009–10, thus the number of promotions to and relegations from the second tier were reduced to two. Until 2013–14 one conference winner played the bottom First Division team, while the other conference winners contested the other promotion spot. Until 2014–15 two teams are relegated from and promoted to the First Division. In 2014–15 the Western champions were directly promoted while those from the East and Central contested the other promotion place. In 2015–16 all three division winners were promoted to fill vacancies in the second tier and 2016–17 only the Central winners were promoted as the Eastern and Western champions declined promotion. At the end of 2017–18 all three Regionalliga champions and six other licensed teams went up when the second division, now the Second