The 2016 Mitre 10 Cup season will be the eleventh year running since the competition reconstruction in 2006 and the sixth under the new Premiership and Championship format. For the Mitre 10 Cup competition it will involve the top 14 provincial unions of New Zealand. For sponsorship reasons, the competition is known as the Mitre 10 Cup and it will be currently the first season under the sponsor. Including the defunct National Provincial Championship, this is the 41st season of New Zealand's premier domestic.
Covering 11 weeks, with nine weeks of competition and two weeks for the semifinals and finals, the schedule features a total of 76 matches. The 14 teams are grouped and divided into two divisions of seven teams, labeled the Premiership Division and the Championship Division. They are based on their on-field finishing positions following the previous year, teams finishing 1-7 will form the Premiership, teams finishing 8-14 will form the Championship. Including a promotion/relegation process between the winner of the Championship receiving automatic promotion to the Premiership replacing the seventh placed team in the Premiership which will be relegated to the Championship for the following year. The regular season consists of two types of matches.
Internal Division Matches – Each team plays the other six teams in the same division once, home or away.
Cross Division Matches – Each team plays four teams from the other division, thus missing out on three teams (each from the opposite division). Each team plays home or away games against teams from the other division, making a total of ten competition games for each team.
The top four teams of each division, will move on to the finals. The top two division winners, based on table points, received a home semi-final. In the first round of the finals, the semi-finals, the second division winner hosts the third division winner, and the first division winner hosts the fourth division winner. The final is hosted by the top remaining seed.
There is also the Ranfurly Shield. It is automatically contested when the holder of the shield plays at home in any round (excluding semis and final).
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