The Southern group was similar to the Northern. Three outsiders, two of which way bellow the rest of the league. Relatively equal bulk up to 4th place. Separate team, stronger than the main clubs, but weaker than the favourites, at 3rd place, and something like like a duel between 2 teams for the top spot. This season the Southern group had 21 members.
With 21 points FV Wurzburg was dead last. The only team with less than 10 wins in the league.
Rochling (Volklingen) was a place above with 22 points. Anything memorable about them? They allowed 101 goals in their net, if this could be a distinction.
MTV Ingolstadt was much stronger than two teams at the very bottom – they finished with 29 points. But they were not really close to the next team – FV Frankfurt, the last of the main bulk of teams, ended with 32 points in safety.
Above the three relegated clubs, nothing much interesting.
Kickers (Offenbach) had good years in the first half of the 70s, but now were middle-of-the-road second division club – they finished 8th with 43 points, better than Freiburger FC only on goal-difference. The top of the bulk was not far ahead:
1. FC Saarbrucken was 5th with 47 points. SV Darmstadt 98 was 4th with 48 points. The Bundesliga was not a concern for most of the league – nor was relegation.
Stuttgarter Kickers was on its own – stronger than the typical league, but nothing to do with promotion.
Third with 52 points – 4 points clear from Darmstadt, but 7 points behind the 2nd placed team.
At least the Southern group was not dominated by one club – Karlsruher SC and 1. FC Nurnberg competed almost to the end the season. Karlsruher scored the most goals in the league – 104 – but lost the battle at the end by 2-point difference.
26 wins, 9 ties, 5 losses, 88-38 goal-difference, and 62 points – enough for finishing first. Here are the champions in their most important match of the season – against Karlsruher SC in the 40th round:
From left: Norbert Eder, Bernhard Hartmann, Horst Weyerich, Peter Stocker, Siegfried Susser, Herbert Heidenreich, Jan Majkowski, Bertram Beierlorzer, Jürgen Täuber, Detlef Szymanek, Reinhold Hintermaier.
Once again 1. FC Nurnberg was returning to top flight, and once again had not a team for anything significant there – apart from Norbert Eder, no really strong players. But great for the moment – champions of the Southern Second Division, directly promoted.
The runners-up of the two groups had one more chance for promotion: the play-off between Karlsruher SC and Rot-Weiss Essen took place in June. Karlsruher SC hosted the first leg and they took full advantage of home turf, destroying Rot-Weiss 6-1. A week later it was just a protocol match: Rot-Weiss tried to break the odds, but it was impossible. They won 3-1, which was at least a good effort. However, not enough for promotion – Karlsruher won 6-4 on aggregate and were promoted to first division.
Rot-Weiss (Essen) – the losers of the play-off and rightly so. They finished 2nd in the North, but were not even close to the champion Arminia.
Karlruher SC lost direct promotion at the very end of the season, but not their second chance. Well done at the end.
So, the three promoted clubs were Arminia Bielefeld, 1. FC Nurnberg, and Karlsruher SC. All had played Bundesliga football before. Neither appeared to be up and coming team. It was familiar picture by now: former members of the Bundesliga were the winners of the Second Division, quite easily. Most of the second level clubs were not even close to the few favourites, which in their turn were nothing special and after going up were soon relegated again.