Division One South is one of the two second-tier divisions of the Northern Premier League. It is at Step 4 (or level 8) of the National League System, placing it seven divisions below the Premier League. For sponsorship reasons, it is also referred to as the UniBond League Division One South.
The split of the Northern Premier League First Division resulted in the creation of the Division One South and the Division One North. The division began play at the start of the 2007-08 season, initially with 18 teams but now 20 teams for the 2008-09 season
When the FA announced the details of the restructuring, a number of clubs complained that a 34 game season was too short. To address this perceived shortfall it was decided that the clubs would play an additional eight games on top of that; four to be played at home and four to be played away.1
To facilitate these additional games each division was split into two regional groups of nine clubs. Each team in Group A for example, would play the other teams in Group A three times, while they would play teams in Group B just twice. Likewise, the reverse was true for those teams in Group B, who would play teams in their group three times, and they would play teams in Group A twice. It is as yet unclear if this format will be repeated for the 2008-09 season.
From 1987 until 2007, the division was united and just known as the Northern Premier League First Division, before being split into North and South subsections. Here are the champions from when the league was just the NPL First Division.