NCAA campaigns for change on 88th season

CHANGE has been the overarching theme for the 88th season of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as this year’s host Letran College tipped off Saturday’s event with a simple opening ceremony.

Keeping with the league’s goal of staying relevant, NCAA president Father Tamerlane Lana formally announced the transfer to new media partner AKTV to beam its basketball games live on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

NCAA ended its 10-year partnership with multimedia giant ABS-CBN early this year, primarily because of a juicy offer from the Manny Pangilinan-led firm.

These include better leeway in arranging the schedule and which games should be given exposure, something that the NCAA, according to Lana, was only given to rival University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP).

Basketball will still be the centerpiece event in the first semester while other events include chess, beach volleyball, swimming and table tennis.

Football, volleyball, lawn tennis, badminton, track and field and cheerleading competition, now counted in the computation for the general championship race, complete the events for the second semester.

“We can only conquer greater heights if we are open to change. That’s why we have a change in our media partner,” Lana said as he thanked AKTV for taking the challenge.

Letran, which last hosted the NCAA in 2005, opened the season at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City with a trip back to the Spanish colonial period. It showed villagers welcoming the entry of Christianity.

The host school, which was founded by Dominican priests in 1620, also delighted the crowd with Spanish-inspired dances.

The NCAA groups schools San Beda College, Letran, Jose Rizal University, San Sebastian College, Mapua Institute of Technology, University of Perpetual Help System Dalta, and De La Salle University-College of St. Benilde.

Arellano University, Emilio Aguinaldo College and Lyceum of the Philippines, meanwhile, are under probation. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)