Mapua University is set to tweak the tournament format for basketball and volleyball when it serves as host for NCAA Season 101 slated to kick off in October.
Management committee representative Melchor Divina shared the development on Tuesday as Mapua formally received the hosting rights from Season 100 host Lyceum of the Philippines University.
For Season 101, both basketball and volleyball will feature a group stage bracket with the 10 member schools set to be divided into two pools based on specific criteria.
Once the rankings are determined after the two rounds, there will then be a play-in stage where the fourth and fifth-ranked teams will compete for the last playoff spot.
Divina added that Season 101 will also introduce a crossover quarterfinals round, where the teams will duke it out in a best-of-three affair before advancing to the next round.
Divina shared the new tournament format is inspired by both the NBA and the US NCAA, saying they hope this would entice more engagement from the public, especially from the students of each participating schools.
"Gagawa kami ng kakaibang tournament format, pinaghalo namin ‘yung NBA, US NCAA. May play-in, meron na ring quarterfinals sa basketball at volleyball," Divina said on Tuesday.
"Para exciting at ‘di porket fifth place ka wala ka nang chance. Nilagyan lang namin ng additional excitement lang. Kahit nasa ilalim ka may chance ka pa rin."
As of now, the league is looking at opening the season on October 1 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, but Divina shared that it remains a tentative date.
"October 1, tentative kasi ayun ‘yung availability ng Araneta. Aaralin pa namin kasi that is Wednesday kasi for the past years weekends [and opening] e. Ano ang impact ‘pag weekdays, mas marami ba ang tao so ia-assess pa namin," he said.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
