Effective for the 2022–23 academic year, NEC teams transitioning from Division II were eligible for the NEC tournament during their third and fourth years of the transition period.
[1] The rule change regarding reclassifying institutions resulted in Merrimack being eligible for the 2023 NEC tournament,[1] since it is in its fourth transition year.
Teams were seeded by record within the conference,[2] with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records.
Stonehill was ineligible for the NCAA tournament until the 2026–27 season during its four-year reclassification period and won't be eligible for the NEC tournament until the 2024–25 season.
[4] Teams were reseeded after each round with highest remaining seeds receiving home court advantage.