Men's Soccer Tiebreakers

There will be an eight-team seeded championship. The conference champion shall be determined by the winner of the championship match. In the event of a tie after overtime in the championship game, penalty kicks will determine the conference automatic qualifier.

The participants in the tournament will be determined by a point system (three points for a win, one point for a tie) in round-robin conference play. The school with the highest point total will have the right to host regardless of the type of playing surface.

The format of the championship will be an eight-team single-elimination playoff in 2024. The first round will be played on Saturday, Nov. 2 (1-seed hosts 8-seed, 2-seed hosts 7-seed, 3-seed hosts 6-seed and 4-seed hosts 5-seed). From there, semifinals will be played on Wednesday, Nov. 6 (1/8 winner vs. 4/5 winner, 2/7 winner vs. 3/6 winner) at the highest seeds; we do not reseed after the opening round) with the highest remaining seed hosting the championship game on the following Saturday, Nov. 9.

The tie-breakers shall be as follows (in the instance of a three or more way tie, once one team is advanced by a tie-breaker, the remaining teams will begin the tie-breaker process anew starting with the first criteria):

1. Head-to-head record
2. Most wins in Empire 8 play.
3. Goal differential in all Empire 8 games (max of plus / minus 4 per game)
4. The conference office shall compare conference game results using the best conference record against the highest remaining teams in descending order, starting with the 1st place team.
5. This process will determine seeds for the entire conference.