Format of Minnesota High School Bowling's 2007 Early Season Northern Invitational Tournament, held at Classic Bowl in Coon Rapids...

All 17 teams participated in a 6-game qualifier. Each team bowled 3 games on one pair of lanes and then 3 more games on a different pair of lanes.

The 17 teams were seeded into three pools, based on their total pins from the 6-game qualifier. Two pools had 6 teams in it and one pool had five teams in it (plus a “ghost team”). Each team bowled a 2-game match against each team in its pool. The goal in the 2-game match was to outscore your opponent over two games (i.e. your team can get outscored by 10 pins in the first game, but if your team wins the second game by 11 pins your team wins the match). Each match was worth three points and the match winner was awarded all 3 points. If a tie existed after two games then each team received 1.5 points. All teams that bowled against the “ghost team” won the match and was awarded 3 points.

The two teams with the highest number of points from each pool (PLUS two “wild card teams” - the two teams with highest average during pool play that did not finish in the top two in its pool) advanced to the final level of the tournament – an eight-team bracket tournament.

The “Final 8” was a single elimination tournament (using the same 2-game match format), with a consolation bracket.