The conference champion shall be decided by the winner of the post-season conference tournament. The top six teams will advance to the conference tournament to be played the week before the NCAA Tournament. On Tuesday of championship week, No. 6 will play at No. 3 and No. 5 will play at No. 4 in opening round action, as the top two seeds receive opening round byes. Semifinal action will be played on the Thursday of Championship week, as the winner of 4/5 will play at No. 1 in one semfinal and winner of 3/6 will play at No. 2 in the second semifinal. The semifinal winners will advance to the Championship to be played at the highest remaining seed on Saturday.
* Please note that the Empire 8 does not re-seed after the opening round.
Seeing for the conference tournament will be determined by conference standings using best conference records and/or tie-breakers below.
Two-way tie: Result of the in-season head-to-head conference competition shall be used to break the tie.
Three or more team tie-breaker (if at any point one team is
advanced in this process, the process immediately goes back to two-way tie-break).
i.) Head-to-head conference record amongst the tied teams will be considered. The team(s) with the best record versus each other shall be given the highest seed.
Example: Team A is 2-0, Team B is 1-1 and Team C is 0-2. Team A would be advanced and Team B and C would go head-to-head.
ii.) If there is still a tie involving more than 2 teams. For example: Team A is 1-1, Team B is 1-1, Team C is 1-1, then compare in the following order.
a.) Least goals against amongst the tied teams in conference games against each other.
b.) Least goals against amongst all conference opponents.
c.) Goals for verse the tied teams only.
d.) Goals for verse all conference opponents.
Multi- team tie example:
Team A, B and C all finish 5-3, and they all went 1-1 amongst each other leading them to least goals against amongst the tied teams. Team A had 22 GA, Team B had 21 GA, Team C had 19 GA. Team C would be advanced because they allowed the fewest goals amongst the tied teams. Team A and B would revert to a head to head comparision.