The 2004 tournament was a 6-team double-elimination tournament, with seeds determined by conference regular season winning percentage only. Michigan claimed the third seed over Michigan State by tiebreaker. As in the previous two years, the top two seeds received a single bye, with the four lower seeds playing opening round games. The top seed played the lowest seeded winner from the opening round, with the second seed playing the higher seed. Teams that lost in the opening round played an elimination game.[3]