UAAP moves collegiate football onto the first semester

c/o UAAP

One of the major adjustments the University Athletic Association of the Philippines is introducing for the 87th season is moving the collegiate football tournaments onto the first semester.

Matches are set to start later this month, as the league is opting to take a more proactive approach in addressing the weather conditions in place during the summer months. They have noticed that the student-athletes have struggled coping with the high temperatures.

When asked about the change, Far Eastern University athletic director and Board of Managing Directors representative Mark Molina says, "It’s really because of the extreme heat pagdating ng April and May."

He adds, "In fact, if you’ve noticed during the last couple of years, in the second round, we don’t play 2 p.m. games anymore because of that. But even 4 p.m. games, kawawa yung athletes eh. This was actually planned last year already but because of eligibility purposes, it’s hard to just shift the calendar. So we gave all of the schools the chance to prepare for the shift. Now, it’s finally happened."

The league is expected set to kickstart the men's tournament on September 12, with the women's division to commence a week later. Matches will be hosted at the UP Diliman Football Stadium for the eliminations.

Otherwise, the UAAP will retain aspects from the previous season, with the men's games set to be played on Thursdays and Sundays, while the women's matches are held on Saturdays.

National University is the only UAAP member-school not fielding a team in the men's division, which has the University of the Philippines as its defending champions. On the women's side, Far Eastern University has won the last couple of seasons, defeating La Salle in both meetings, and is fresh from recently dispatching Kaya FC in the United Invitational Women's Football Tournament. UP, Ateneo, and UST seek to crash the party, which saw its matches finally streamed earlier this year.

Molina also made assurances that the league has contingency plans for the rainy season. He shares, "If there will be games that will be called off or postponed, I’m sure may instances niyan, we’re prepared to play more weekday games siguro but we will finish before Christmas for sure this December."

"The good thing now is that the UP pitch is turf already. That’s not a big problem unless may lightning then we’ll need to cancel. We still feel na better to play now during the rainy season than during the summer."