Crimson Crux

Okay, for those unacquainted with the college basketball scene in the Philippines, here’s a primer: there are two major leagues, the UAAP and the NCAA.

A discussion on which is the better league is better left with sports blogs, but it’s oft-mentioned that of the two, the UAAP is the “glamour league”, having two ‘well-endowed’ schools (Ateneo and La Salle) in its ranks. The NCAA, on the other hand, enjoys a richer tradition, having been founded earlier. The University of the Philippines, my alma mater, competes in the UAAP.

Now, a very intriguing proposition has been plastered on the sports pages these past days. As part of the upcoming UP Centennial celebration, the State U is pushing for a unified super-league.

Craziness? Perhaps. An impossibility? Nope. According to news reports, member schools like the idea of a combined UAAP-NCAA. However, these same schools doubt whether the merger can be pulled off. A couple of problems looming on the hardcourt horizon:

• The leagues implement different rules and policies;
• Scheduling of games and tournament duration — more games per week, or do they add an extra month of competition?;
• “Maraming egos na dapat imasahe,” as opined by Frankie Lim, coach of the current NCAA champions San Beda;
• Short span of time for preparing such a monumental task — we’ve got just half a year left before the next college hoops season begins;
• The leagues already have existing sponsorship and commercial commitments;
• The network that airs both leagues’ games, ABS-CBN’s Studio 23, will definitely have a say in all of this;
• Would NCAA and UAAP teams be given the chance to duke it out (cross-division games), or do we have a Major League Baseball-type structure wherein there will be two separate “subleagues” in the form of the NCAA and UAAP divisions? In the latter’s case, teams will only compete with those from their same division. The top teams from each division can contest the playoffs (or just have the top team from each league battle it out in the finals). However, I think this kind of defeats the purpose of a merged league — we already have the Champions Cup, which is unfortunately not taken seriously by many teams.

Am I for a merged league? Definitely. It’s about time. And speaking of time, to be able to pull it off by next year would be really great timing — it’d be a fine service to Philippine basketball by UP.

Realistically speaking, though, I see this merger happening in two or three years at best. One year is wishing for a lot. And if the merger doesn’t fall on UP’s Centennial, that’s all right — come on, the school still got the ball rolling!

That said, UP, UAAP, NCAA, and BAP-Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas: make me eat my prediction. Please.