The Northern League, like many other leagues, has had championships based on both regular season and post-season play. This document describes the various championship formats that have been used in the league over the years. For the details of which teams won championships, see the championship winners list .
Every season has one team that finishes in first place with the best overall record.
Under this format, there are separate winners for each half of the season. In addition, since 1996, when the league was reorganized into Eastern and Western divisions, each division has its own season-half pennant winners. Baukol playoffs winners. These were not playoffs in the usual sense, since they involved no post-season competition. Instead, the team records for the final 30 days of regular-season play were used to determine playoff standings.