It’s NHIAA tie-breaking season, and you can bet Class L basketball fans already have their calculators warmed up and ready once the final results are reported Friday night.

Here’s one tie-breaker we can tell you about right now. The battle for the final spot in the tournament comes down to Friday night’s regular-season finale between 4-13 Nashua North and 5-12 Timberlane Regional of Plaistow.

Should North win and Merrimack beat Londonderry, a three-way tie would be created at 5-13. In the three-way head-to-head, the teams would all be 1-1. But when we go to tiebreaker No. 2, rating against teams selected for the tournament, North gets the spot by virtue of its four wins against tournament teams.

Should Merrimack lose and North wins, North wins a two-way tie with Timberlane because it beat them in the head-to-head game.

Remember, once the tie has been settled for the last spot, the teams eliminated are no longer involved in tie-breaker, a rule that changed a couple of years ago.

With one game left there is still plenty of room for movement. Right now there is a five-way tie for sixth place at 10-7 including Nashua South, Bishop Guertin, Manchester West, Exeter and Winnacunnet. At stake for all five on Friday night is potentially hosting a first round playoff game or going on the road.

How important is that? In the Class I prelims on Tuesday night, all eight top-seeded teams advanced with victories at home.