2025 NEC Field Hockey Tiebreakers (heading into final weekend of regular season):

Remaining games of significance: Saint Francis-Fairfield, Stonehill-Merrimack, Sacred Heart-LIU and Rider-Wagner.

The winner of Fairfield-SFU on Friday is the 1-seed and the loser the 2-seed.                                                                
                                                                
Wagner is locked in as the 3-seed                                                                
                                                                
Rider takes the 4-seed with a win unless Stonehill beats Merrimack and Sacred Heart loses to LIU.                                                                
                                                                
Stonehill claims the 4-seed with a win and Sacred Heart loss to LIU.                                                                
                                                                
Sacred Heart earns the 4-seed with a win and Rider loss. SHU is also in with a loss if Stonehill & Rider both lose.                                                                
                                                                
Merrimack, LIU and Mercyhurst have been eliminated from playoff contention.                                                                
                                                                
Sacred Heart wins both a potential 4-way tiebreaker with Merrimack, Rider and Stonehill, and a 5-way tiebreaker adding in LIU.                                                                
The 5-way tiebreaker would come down to goal differential in games between the tied teams capped at +/- 3 per game.                                                                
SHU's worst possible differential is +2. Rider is locked in at +1, LIU and Stonehill's best possible is 0, and Merrimack's best is -1.                                                                

                      
   
NEC Field Hockey Tiebreaker Procedure:

Two-Way Tiebreaker
1. Winning percentage of each team in head-to-head competition.
2. Winning percentage of each team vs. the first-place team, or their composite winning percentage against any teams tying for first place.
3. Winning percentage of each team vs. the second-place team, or their composite     winning percentage against any teams tying for second place.
4, This process continues with winning percentage vs. the third-place team, fourth-place team, etc., as necessary, until the tie is broken and seeding is complete. If a tie still exists after exhausting steps 1-4, conference goal differential within the tied teams (capped at +/- 3) shall be used.

Three-Way (or more) Tiebreaker
In the event of a three-way tie (or a tie involving more than three teams) in the standings, the following tiebreaker system shall be used in the order listed.

1. The winning percentages of the teams involved in the tie vs. each other shall be compared. If one team’s winning percentage is superior to the others, that team shall be removed from the tie and seeded highest of the teams involved in the tie.  If two teams subsequently remain, that tie shall be broken utilizing the two-way tiebreaker procedure.
2. If no single team has a superior winning percentage after the comparison described in No. 1, but multiple teams have the same superior percentage to the any other teams involved in the tie, those teams with the superior percentage will be compared using either the two-way or three-way tiebreaker procedure. The team that has the advantage will be seeded highest of all teams involved in the original tie. The other team(s) (the loser(s) of the appropriate tiebreaker) will again be compared to the remaining teams in the tie, beginning with step No. 1 of the two-way or three-way tiebreaker.
3. If all winning percentages in the three-way (or more) tie vs. teams involved in the tie are the same, each team’s winning percentage vs. the first-place team or teams tying for first place shall be compared. If one team’s winning percentage is superior to the others, that team shall be removed from the tie and seeded highest of the teams involved in the tie.  If two teams remain, that tie shall be broken utilizing the two-way tiebreaker procedure.
4. If all winning percentages in the three-way (or more) tie vs. teams involved in the tie are the same, each team’s winning percentage vs. the first-place team or teams tying for first place shall be compared. If multiple teams have a superior winning percentage to any other team in the original tie, those teams with the superior percentage will be compared using either the two-way or three-way tiebreaker procedure. The team that has the advantage will be seeded highest of all teams involved in the original tie. The other team(s) (the loser(s) of the appropriate tiebreaker) will again be compared to the remaining teams in the tie, beginning with step No. 1 of the two-way or three-way tiebreaker.
5. This process continues as necessary, comparing winning percentages of teams in the tie vs. the second-place team or their composite percentages vs. teams tying for second place, third place, etc., until all ties are broken and seeding is complete.
6. If a tie still exists after exhausting all previous steps, conference goal differential within the tied teams (capped at +/- 3) shall be used.  If two teams remain, that tie shall be broken utilizing the two-way tiebreaker procedure.