LANCASTER, Pa. – The 2025 Atlantic East Conference Men's Basketball Playoffs are set to begin on Monday, February 24th with the champion crowned on Saturday, March 1^st. The Atlantic East Champion will earn the conference's NCAA Division III Championship automatic qualifier (AQ).

With multiple teams deadlocked in the conference standings, the league’s tiebreaking procedure was used to determine seeding. Ties are broken from the top of the standings down.

The first stalemate to be resolved was the three-way tie between Gwynedd Mercy, Marymount, and Neumann as all three finished with 9-3 conference records. In a head-to-head comparison, all three squads held identical 2-2 records offering no relief.

The teams were then compared based on their results against the remaining AEC teams in rank order. With ties being broken from the top down, Centenary and Marywood (both 5-7) were considered as a single seed for this comparison. The Griffins, Saints, and Knights all went 3-1 against the Cyclones and the Pacers, while sweeping the remaining conference teams, meaning another tiebreaker would be required.

The next tiebreaker was head-to-head point differential (capped at 20 points per game) between the tied teams. Neumann was awarded the No. 1 seed due to its plus-9 difference compared to Marymount’s plus-3 and Gwynedd’s minus-12.

With the Knights removed from the equation, the Griffins and Saints restarted the procedure from the top.

The two teams split their head-to-head meetings, requiring additional tiebreaker steps. In the comparison against the remaining AEC teams in rank order, there were no differentiating results as the unbroken tie between Centenary and Marywood was still considered a single seed. In head-to-head point differential, both teams had a six-point margin of victory leaving no differential.

The final two tiebreaking steps before a coin-flip involved comparing the teams’ common non-conference results with priority to results at a common site (home, away, neutral). Gwynedd and Marymount both lost Salisbury on the road and both defeated Penn State Brandywine, pushing the tiebreaker to a coin-flip.

The flip was conducted Saturday morning on a Zoom call with the conference office and the athletic directors and coaches from the two tied teams. The Saints won the flip and were awarded the No. 2 seed with the Griffins earning the No. 3 spot in the conference tournament.

With the first tie resolved, the tiebreaking criteria was applied to Centenary and Marywood. The teams split their regular-season meetings, which led to the comparison against the league’s other members in rank order. The Cyclones earned the No. 4 seed in this step with their win over top seed Neumann, while the Pacers were winless in their two meetings against the Knights.

The full tournament seeding is as follows: 1. Neumann 2. Marymount 3. Gwynedd Mercy, 4. Centenary, 5. Marywood
 
The tournament will begin on Monday, February 24^th with the No. 4 seed Centenary hosting the No. 5 seed Marywood. The semifinal round will take place on Wednesday February 26^th as the top two seeds host. No. 1 Neumann will host the 4/5 game winner, while No. 2 Marymount will host No. 3 Gwynedd Mercy. The semifinal winners will advance to the championship game on Saturday, March 1^st game times are subject to change. 
 
Neumann, Marymount, and Gwynedd Mercy have each won Atlantic East Championships over the years. Marymount won back-to-back titles in 22-23 and 23-24, while the Knights last won last in the 21-22 season. The Griffins finished on top of the conference in 18-19.

For more information, visit our championship page.