On the court, there will no longer be conference Final Four tournaments in either basketball, or volleyball. Instead, the conference playoffs will lead to a single conference championship game, ensuring a host participates for conference gold, which was not guaranteed under the existing format. The number of playoff teams in basketball (12) will not change, while the number of volleyball playoff teams will increase from seven to eight this season.
The changes mark a departure from the existing Final Four formats in both sports, which had been in place since 2001-02 in men's basketball, 2002-03 in women's basketball, and 2002-03 in both men's and women's volleyball.
A complete look at each playoff format can be found below.
Basketball – top 12 teams qualify for playoffs
Week 1- Seeds 1-4 earn a bye
- Single-game play-ins
- 12 @ 5
- 11 @ 6
- 10 @ 7
- 9 @ 8
Week 2
- Best-of-three quarter-finals
- Series A: 12 or 5 @ 4
- Series B: 11 or 6 @ 3
- Series C: 10 or 7 @ 2
- Series D: 9 or 8 @ 1
Week 3
- Best-of-three semifinals
- Winner of Series A @ Winner of Series D
- Winner of Series B @ Winner of Series C
Week 4
- Single-game Canada West Championship Game @ highest remaining seed
- Single-game CW Bronze Medal Game if needed to determine additional CW representatives at nationals @ higher seed