On the anniversary of the Thrilla in Manila at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum, the National Collegiate Athletic Association is set to commence its 101st season at the hallowed venue, with last season's Final Four teams tangling in a doubleheader.
Hosts and defending seniors' basketball champions Mapua faces Lyceum at 230pm, with San Beda and the College of Saint Benilde following suit at 5pm. Both matches are set to be broadcast live by its media partner, GMA.
The league is set to introduce a new format for the next few seasons for both basketball and volleyball, in a move they believe would inject some freshness to the competition.
The ten participating teams are split into two groups of five. Teams that made the postseason were equitably split into the two groups, with a draw involving the remaining six schools completing the field. Those within the same group will play its fellow group members twice, while facing the ones in the other group once, making it thirteen games in the eliminations.
Afterwards, the bottom two teams of each group will face off in a play-in to complete the crossover quarterfinal field, which will utilize the twice-to-beat advantage for the top two teams in each group.
Both the semifinals and the finals will be in a best-of-three matchup, with the return of the third place game to boot.
Preceeding the games is an elaborate opening ceremony slated at noon, but will be broadcast at around 130pm. Highlighting the event are performances from the trio of Thea Astley, Hannah Precillas, and Naya Ambi, as well as from Aicelle Santos.
Philippine Sports Commission chairman Patrick Gregorio has been invited as a guest speaker, as the league fresh from its centennial celebrations jumpstarts its next century.
In addressing the media present at the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, NCAA ManCom member and Jose Rizal University athletic director Paul Supan shares, "Madaling tandaan. Season 101. And we’ll open on October 1. 10-1. So things like that. And with this year’s theme ‘Building Greatness,’ I’m sure for the past 100 years of NCAA, you’ve seen student-athletes rose to the elite level. So in the next 100 years in coordination with the PSC and member schools, we hope to sustain our contribution to the national training pool."
The NCAA also reaffirmed its commitment and partnership with the PSC on bolstering the country's national pool with the upcoming launch of four demonstration events in boxing, golf, gymnastics, and weightlifting, which they initially announced in their press conference last week.
Fellow ManCom member and Emilio Aguinaldo College Vice President for Administration Dr. Lorenzo Lorenzo notes, "The NCAA and PSC ay nagkaroon ng partnership in terms of training and developing these grassroots athletes."
All four events will take place during the second semester, as the league is in the midst of preparations on how they are to get these events going.
Boxing, Gymnastics, and Weightlifting have provided the medals for the Philippines in the Olympics, including the gold medal that College of Saint Benilde graduate Hidilyn Diaz secured in Tokyo.
In addition, the league is in the process of bringing back gamedays at their original home, the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
Most of the upcoming basketball matches are set to be played at the Filoil Centre in San Juan, with other fixtures taking place at the Mall of Asia Arena.
RMC is set to host its only basketball games on the first week of November, with Mapua versus CSB and Lyceum vs San Beda on the fourth, while the next day features Arellano vs JRU.
Supan says, "This is our home and most of us will acknowledge, dito talaga nagsimula ang NCAA." Lorenzo adds, "The direction really is to eventually ensure that all of the games in the eliminations and semis, basically, were going back to our home base."
The complex is already set to host the league's taekwondo, swimming, lawn and soft tennis, with plans to have the football competition return to Rizal Memorial Stadium after having to spend it earlier this year at the University of Makati.
Also set to return to a familiar venue is the league's athletics tournament, which is to be staged at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.
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