The Southern group was not so clear. Without relegated from top flight team, the race was wide open and without familiar favourites. Perhaps Kickers (Offenbach) was considered a favourite on the strength of their not along ago good years in the Bundesliga. But those years were gone and although Kickers was among the best teams, they were not the strongest. A rather surprising name won the league and quite easily at that: Darmstadt 98.
Second division teams hardly ever have well known players and Darmstadt had none, but they were well above the rest of the league, finishing 5 points ahead of the next pursuer. They did not have neither the best attack, nor the best defense in the league, but were unbeatable at home and the best away record in the 2 Liga Sud. 24 wins, 7 ties, and 7 losses – winning made them best: the next clubs in the table won just 19 matches. May be not a very promising team, may be just lucky to play in a weak league, but Darmstadt made the best of the circumstances and unquestionable deserved the first place. Good for them – Darmstadt was going to Bundesliga for a second time.
Five clubs competed for the second place – at the end 5 points divided them. With 45 points SV 07 Waldhof finished 6th. The other losers were SSV Ulm 46 – 5th, Hessen (Kassel) – 4th, Stuttgarter Kickers – 3rd. Kickers (Offenbach) finished 2nd with 50 points – 2 more than Stuttgarter Kickers.
Obviously, Kickers (Offenbach) wanted to return to the Bundesliga, but were unable to finish first – perhaps not surprising, for they hardly had the team for that. Still they had a chance for promotion – they were going to the play-off for just that.
As a matter of curiousity, one club had their first and last season in the second division:
EfB Eppingen debuted this season, but going down right away was not misfortune due to the transformation of the second division – the newcomers finished last and faced relegation even in the old format. Yet, they were the only club left of a single participation in the second division this season.
Clarity ends right here. 2 Liga Sud got 9 spots in the new single division. It was clear in the North – all depended on the final place in the table. In the South it was mysteriously different… Stuttgarter Kickers – 3rd, Hessen Kassel – 4th, SV Waldhof – 8th, SC Freiburg – 8th, and SpVgg Bayreuth -10th moved to the new single division, according to their final positions. But…
SSV Ulm 46 – 5th,
Eintracht (Trier) – 8th, and
FC Homburg – 11th, did not get spots in the new division. Perhaps they did not meet financial requirements, but who knows. Instead of them
Wormatia (Worms) – 12th, and
SpVgg Furth – 14th, appeared in the new single second division. For some reason final table did not play a role in determination of those who stayed in the second division. Of course, most mysterious was the disappearance of SSV Ulm 46, who were among the candidates for promotion in 1980-81. So much for the changes.
The winners were directly promoted, what remained was the play-off for the last promotional spot. Kickers (Offenbach) and Eintracht (Braunschweig) met twice for that. Eintracht won 2-0 at home and lost the second match in Offenbach – but only 0-1. Thus Kickers remained in second division and Eintracht (Braunschweig) moved up, returning to top flight and hoping to stay there.