"With home field advantage firmly in hand for the first round, the Earthquakes announced that they will host their home playoff game on Sunday November 9 at 6 P.M. " http://quakemagic.matchnight.com/qmdefault.cfm?page=ARTICLE&show=294 SJSU football is away at UTEP on the 8th, home to Hawaii on the 1st, giving the groundscrew plenty of time to eliminate the the ugly lines....
So does that mean that the first playoff game would be away on November 1st or 2nd ? My understanding is that the higher seed would play the first game away.
That is correct, subject to the availability of the 3rd or 4th seed's stadium. It could conceivably be on the previous Friday as well, though they want it on Saturday or Sunday for sure.