At the end of the season, the top two teams from each half would enter a playoff to determine the league championship.
[4] By the end of the first half, Boston had finished at the top of the table, but Bethlehem Steel and New Bedford tied with forty-one points each.
This led to an improvised first half playoff game on February 22, 1928, between Bethlehem Steel and New Bedford to determine second place.
The structural problems with the proposed playoff system became obvious by the end of the first half of the season.
This led to a playoff game which, ironically, did not take place until February 22, 1928, nearly two weeks after the second half of the season began.
This led to a protest by the New York Nationals that they deserved to be the fourth team on account of finishing above Bethlehem Steel in the second half.
The league executives decided then to include both the Nationals and Bethlehem Steel, making the playoffs a five-team affair.
While there, Bethlehem requested the Wanderers loan their goalkeeper, future Aberdeen great Steve Smith, to replace the injured Edwards.
The league voided the result of the second leg game after it was discovered Bethlehem Steel used Steve Smith, the Brooklyn Wanderers goalkeeper, in place of the injured Dave Edwards.