FIRST THINGS FIRST: Rest in peace, Uncle Phil. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recently celebrated its 100th season, marking it as the country’s oldest collegiate sports league. Long left behind its younger counterpart, low attendance numbers, and rules that are out of touch with the greater scheme of advancing Philippine sports plagued the first century of our University’s mother league.  

Season 101 marks the return of the NCAA to the historic Rizal Memorial Coliseum. Returning for the first time since 2005, Rizal Memorial is seen as the home of the NCAA. Despite renovations and further rehabilitation projects, Rizal Memorial remains flood-prone and is ridiculed as a relic of the past.  

“If the NCAA were to reclaim the respect and reputation it once held as the bastion for collegiate sports in the Philippines, the league must let go of backwards-thinking rules that hinder the state of competition and promotion of the league. ” 

This is a stark contrast to the University Athletic Association of the Philippines’ (UAAP) plans to make a state-of-the-art facility in Pasig City to house the league’s sporting events. The NCCA also remains dependent on other events in securing venues, such as the Season 101 Basketball Tournament being moved later in the season, prompting a change to the traditional format.  

The addition of Esports as an exhibition event in Season 100 also symbolizes the apparent catching up the NCAA is doing when it comes to innovating the state of sports in the country. Already in its second season in the UAAP, Esports is well represented in the league’s events. Seen as equal to traditional sports, Esports in the UAAP includes three different games that are given dedicated venues despite its exhibition event status.  

Esports in the NCAA, while still in its infancy, only included one event that was online only, with the final four and finals being the only games to be given a proper venue.  

Season 101 also marks five years since the implementation of the rule banning Foreign Student Athletes (FSA) in all sports in the NCAA. While a tricky subject to talk about through the lens of San Beda, the implementation of the rule affirmed the “mercenary” notion that is given to FSAs by several outspoken fans.  

Not just affecting basketball, FSAs are now contributing to the advancement of competition in other sports, such as volleyball and football, in the collegiate ranks. Limited to basketball prior to the ban of FSAs in the NCAA, other NCAA sports remain limited in terms of the competition within the league. This ban also further advanced the conversation about the gap in terms of quality between the NCAA and UAAP.  

As the NCAA faces a new century this Season 101, recent rules and change of tournament schedule sets a negative precedent for the following century of the country’s oldest collegiate sports league.  

If the NCAA were to reclaim the respect and reputation it once held as the bastion for collegiate sports in the Philippines, the league must let go of backwards-thinking rules that hinder the state of competition and promotion of the league.  

Email me at thebedan_sportseditor@sanbeda.edu.ph