The team with the highest wining percentage in conference play will be named the Empire 8 Champion and will earn the conference's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament. In the event of a tie, all tied teams will be named co or tri- champions. The following criteria will be used to determine the E8's NCAA automatic qualifier: (in the instance of a three or more way tie, once one team is eliminated by a tie-breaker, the remaining teams will begin the tie-breaker process anew starting with the first criteria.
- Head-to-Head results.
- The conference office shall compare conference game results using the best conference record against the highest seeded remaining teams in descending order. For example:
- If three more teams are tied for first, the conference record of the tied teams versus the remaining teams would be compared in descending order until the tie broken. In this case, the three teams tied for first would compare conference records against the fourth team.
- If three more teams are tied for fifth, then their conference records versus the #1 team would be compared, then 2, 3 etc.
- Results versus common non-league opponents (All teams must have played the same opponent).
- NCAA NPI Ranking
- First half scoring differential among the three tied teams
- Random draw voted in as last criteria