the tournament has used several formats in its history, though seeding in all formats has been based strictly on conference record (with tiebreakers used as needed). when the tournament began in 1982, the conference had six members: army, fairfield, fordham, iona, manhattan, and saint peter's. it used a standard single-elimination bracket that gave the 1 and 2 seeds a first-round bye into the semifinals, with the bottom four seeds playing in the first round at the highest seeded team's home court. the semifinals, and championship games were played at the meadowlands arena until 1990, when it was moved to the knickerbocker arena. the conference used this setup in the 1982, 1983, 1984, 1988, and 1989 tournaments. after the 1989 tournament, each game would be played at a venue chosen by the league. 1982, 1984, and 1985 also implemented a consolation game played by the losers of the semifinal round.