The Ontario University Athletics ice hockey tournament is an annual conference championship held between member teams.
The winner receives an automatic bid to the U Sports men's ice hockey championship.
The four division champions were still given byes into the second round, however, the remaining four teams for each bracket were selected based upon their regular season record and seeded accordingly.
After the arrival of Nipissing, the league abandoned the cumbersome four division format and switched to eastern and western halves.
When the national tournament expanded to 8 teams in 2015, it began offering three automatic bids to the OUA, causing the conference to make the third place game a permanent fixture.