The Scottish Cup winners – or if that team also wins the league title the Premiership runners-up – enter the Europa League in the first qualifying round next season.
The non-champions path is far stronger, as it includes teams who qualified by league placing from countries such as Belgium, Turkey, Czech Republic and Greece.
In addition, non-champions from the Champions League can drop into the path. This season, that was Olympiakos, Sparta Prague, Sturm Graz and Union St-Gilloise.
This season, Hearts were in the non-champions path and were eliminated by Benfica. Rangers, who were seeded, were knocked out at the same stage by Jagiellonia Bialystok.
With Celtic and Rangers’ five-year coefficient falling due to poor performance by Scotland’s clubs, they may well be unseeded next season, meaning a more difficult draw against one of the teams from a major league.
But there is one positive.
If the Scottish title winners drop out of Champions League and into the Europa League qualifying, they will play another team to drop down from the Champions League.
This season, Celtic entered the Champions League in the play-off round – meaning they were guaranteed to drop into the Europa League league phase.
But next season – due to Scotland dropping down the coefficient table – the champions will enter in the second qualifying round, and must win three ties to make it to the Champions League.