THE Philippine Sports Commission gathered representatives from the various collegiate leagues in the country lately and one of the aim was to form a national collegiate federation. The UAAP may be about the universities of the Philippines and the NCAA has the “national collegiate” in its name but both are just Manila-based leagues. The only truly national collegiate federation that we have is the Private Schools Athletic Association, since it holds a step-ladder tournament for the college teams.
I don’t know what the purpose of the national collegiate federation would be other than having an organization that comprises the often warring college leagues, but if it is to give the college students another tournament to play in, one that would pit them against other college leagues champion, then that would be laudable.
The first question people would ask is how another tournament could fit into hte schedule, but that’s basically a basketball or even volleyball concern, and college sports is more than these two sports; there are other often neglected sports who don’t have another tournament after their college event.
Giving them a chance to compete with others might be that boost.
By the way, if the UAAP and the NCAA aren’t really national in scope despite their names, the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. isn’t also Cebu-wide, despite its name and I think it’s time to change that.
I hope the Cesafi will look into getting new members because there are a lot of schools who are on the outside looking in, with no tournaments to call their own. Of course, there are going to be concerns of how small and new members can compete against the established Universities but I think you can solve that by adopting two divisions, ala the US NCAA. We can have the established schools, or the original members in Division 1 and the newbies in Division 2.
In Cebu City alone, there are a lot of colleges that aren’t part of the Cesafi and I think they’d be open to joining should the opportunity arise. There will be concerns, too, on the behavior of the new members but I think the league can put some safeguards regarding that, a probationary period perhaps?
Seventeen years since it opened shop, replacing the CAAA, I hope Cesafi will consider expanding its membership.