No matter how great or how boring the regular season is, the last day of it is a whole lot of fun if like me, you get a kick out of figuring out wacky contingency plans for tournament seeding.

It so happens that this season was, in my opinion, pretty exciting. The MAAC is as good as it’s been in recent memory, with two teams already at the 23-win mark and one – Siena – getting mentioned every 10 seconds on ESPN as a potential Bubble team.

But independent of all that stuff, what better to spend Sunday morning mapping out who will finish where if what happens and why. (A mouthful, huh?)

Now, the implications of this year’s tiebreakers aren’t all that big, especially compared to last year. And today, no matter what happens, won’t rival that wacky day last March when FIVE teams entered play with a mathematical chance to win the regular season title, and Siena ended up winning the No. 1 seed and automatic NIT bid by virtue of sweeping sixth-place Marist.

The situation was so confusing that I talked to MAAC associate commissioner for basketball Ken Taylor about a minute after the Rider-Fairfield game and he was still trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

Today, the only games that have serious seeding implications are those that involve Saint Peter’s and since one of those teams will avoid the play-in round while the other won’t.

So after going through every potential scenario and figuring out why everything is the way it is, here’s the breakdown:

Siena has clinched the No. 1 seed
Niagara has clinched the No. 2 seed
Rider has clinched the No. 3 seed
Manhattan can clinch the No. 4 seed with a Fairfield loss and can finish no lower than fifth.
Fairfield can clinch the No. 4 seed with a win and can finish no lower than fifth.
Saint Peter's can clinch the No. 6 seed with a win and can finish no lower than seventh.
Iona can clinch the No. 6 seed with a win AND a Saint Peter’s loss, and can finish no lower than eighth.
Loyola can clinch the No. 7 seed with a win AND a Saint Peter’s loss, and can finish no lower than eighth.
Canisius can clinch the No. 9 seed with a win OR a Marist loss
Marist can clinch the No. 9 seed with a win AND a Canisius loss

Now, for those cooky explanations, in order of the seed at stake.

No. 4 seed: If Fairfield and Loyola both win, Fairfield wins the tiebreaker by virtue of its 2-0 record against Loyola. If they both lose, Manhattan wins the tiebreaker by virtue of its 1-1 record against Rider. Not that it matters much, since the Stags and Jaspers will be playing in a 4-5 game Saturday no matter what.

No. 6 seed: If Saint Peter’s wins and Iona beats Loyola, the Peacocks win the tiebreaker over the Gaels because they swept the season series. Loyola then gets the 8 seed. If Saint Peter’s wins and Loyola wins, SPC finishes alone in sixth place. That would leave Iona and Loyola in a seventh-place tie. Iona wins the tiebreaker by virtue of its 1-1 record against Niagara and Loyola gets the 8 seed.

If Saint Peter’s loses and Iona beats Loyola, Iona would finish alone in sixth and Saint Peter’s would finish alone in seventh, with Loyola in eighth.

If Saint Peter’s loses and Loyola beats Iona, there will be a three-way tie for sixth.

This is where it gets interesting.

The MAAC rulebook states that in case of a three-way tie, the teams place in order of their placement in the mini-conference involving the three teams. The teams’ records in the miniconference would be as follows:

SPC: 3-1
Loyola: 2-2
Iona 1-3

That means SPC gets the 6 seed, Loyola gets the 7 and Iona the 8.

No. 9 seed: This one is pretty simple, since Canisius swept the season series with Marist. So if the teams are still tied at the end of the day – by far the most likely scenario since they’re both likely to lose – Canisius gets the 9 seed. If Canisius shocks Siena and Marist loses to Niagara, the Griffs will finish alone in ninth. The only way Marist can get the 9 seed is if the Foxes upset Niagara and Siena takes care of Marist.

How do you think it will all shake out?