They're just two sets of teams.
In the regular season, you play every team in your conference twice home&away, and every team in the opposite conference once (4 at home, 4 away). You start and end with 7 conference games, with the 8 games against the opposite conference in the middle.
All 22 games count in the standings, but you are ranked 1-8 within your own conference. The top 4 in each conference enter the playoffs, with the playoff winner promoting. The 8th place team from both conferences relegate, and the 6th and 7th place teams from opposite conferences playoff, with the loser relegating.
There is also an all-star game at midseason with teams representing the two conferences playing against each other.