States and Copa In the Brazil the States Champioinships are drawing to their end. Some Champions crowned already. Cruzeiro is the Mineiro Champion. Vasco x Fluminense will decide the Carioca while Corinthians and São Paulo will decide the Paulista. Meanwhile Copa Brazil is being played. The Brazilian Championship (The Brasileirão) will be longer and will start now in the (Brazilian) Fall.
The Brasileirão is basically a league. This year it includes 24 teams. Sometimes (always till now) the end of the season is followed by a playoff to determine the champion. This year for the first time it will be home and away in one big league table. Top of the table wins. The State Chmapionships as said previously are winding down. The Championships that were dropped this year were the Inter-state ones (eg Rio x São Paulo, Sul x Minas).
When speaking about the Brasileirão, disregard the whole states thing. Basically, Brasileirão=Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga, you get the jist. It's simply an up-and-down relegation system like every other "normal" league. It gets tricky when you have some states that don't even have any teams in any of pro divisions (1,2,3) and run their state championships parallel to the Brasileirão, but forget I said that if you're trying to understand Brazilian football. As previously mentioned, until last year and since 1998, all teams played each other twice and the top 8 advanced to a quarterfinal system seeded like the NBA and NHL playoffs (1 vs. 8, etc.)and played best of 3 series to see who advances. Before 1998, each year the amount of participants and the rules to crown a champion varied. The 1978 championship, for instance, was a massive 128 teams in a knockoff, home and away style tournament. And in 1987, two national championships were played, however, CBF only recognizes the one they organized.