The tournament instead features only the top eight teams from regular-season NEC play.
[1] Regular-season co-champion Saint Francis of Pennsylvania won the tournament and with it the NEC's automatic berth in the 2018 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament.
[2] For the first time, the NEC Women's Basketball Tournament did not use what the conference calls a "complete high-seed hosting" format, in which all games are played at the home of the higher seed.
In addition, the tournament did not reseed teams after each round, a format it had used since the 2011 edition.
The final continues to be played at the home court of the top remaining seed.