The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA;/ˌɛnsiː.eɪˈeɪ/ ) is an athletic association of ten private colleges and universities in Metro Manila, Philippines. Established in 1924, it is the oldest collegiate athletic association in the country.[2] The Philippine NCAA is not affiliated with the NCAA of the United States.
Organization
The Policy Board and the Management Committee handles the affairs of the league. The Board and the committee are composed of representatives of the ten member schools, and determine the acceptance and suspension of member schools, game reversals and replays, and other official actions.
During the nearly yearlong season from June to March, each school participates in 11 sports; each sport is conducted in two divisions: the Juniors for male high-school students, and the Seniors for college students. There are male and female Seniors divisions for some events. The Juniors and Seniors divisions each award a General Championship trophy at the end of the academic year to the school which had the best performance in all sports, based on the total number of points scored in a Championship tally.
The current president of the Policy Board is Dr. Jose Paulo Campos the Emilio Aguinaldo College, while the Management Committee is headed by Estefania Boquiren, Jr. of Emilio Aguinaldo College
Member schools
The number and composition of NCAA members has changed over the years. The association is currently composed of the following colleges and universities, with their corresponding team names, affiliation, and year of admission.
National Collegiate Athletic Association current member schools
The old NCAA logo. The eight circles are the logos of the eight member schools (clockwise from top: Letran, St. Benilde, JRU, Mapua, PCU (former member school, currently in NAASCU), San Beda, San Sebastian, Perpetual. The "NCAA" logo is the same as that used by the American NCAA. The logo used from 1999 to 2004
The Policy Board, composed of the presidents of member schools, manages the NCAA's external and internal affairs. It handles matters such as acceptance, replacement, and suspension of member schools. The NCAA presidency rotates among member schools.
The other main administrative body in the NCAA is the Management Committee (MANCOM), which determines matters of athletic concern, such as determining the proper conditions for playing, suspension of players, coaches, and referees, reversal or review of game results, and investigation of ineligible players. The Management Committee is composed of the athletics moderators (or athletic directors) of the member schools, who are selected by their respective university presidents, and the league chairperson, who is selected by the Policy Board. Like the league president, the chair of the Management Committee rotates among member schools.
The president of the Policy Board and the chairperson of the Management committee come from the school currently hosting the basketball tournament. The rotation is determined by the order of when each school joined the league. For the 2019–2020 season, the host will be Arellano University.
The host school manages the logistics, expenses, labor and security in the venues. Each sport has its own host, with the host for basketball being the head of all hosts.
Sports
10km 6miles
Cuneta Astrodome
Rizal Sports Complex
Vermosa Sports Hub
Mall of Asia Arena
Filoil Flying V Arena
San Beda-Taytay
LPU Cavite
ICA-Cavite
LSGH
Perpetual
JRU
Benilde
University Belt
Member schools (red) and playing venues (blue) of the NCAA.
The NCAA sponsors thirteen (juniors) and fourteen (seniors) sports, which are divided into two divisions: the Juniors division for high school students and the Seniors division for college students. There are male and female Seniors divisions for some events.
Each member college or university has an affiliated high school that competes in the Juniors division. For example, San Beda University's affiliated high school is its campus at Taytay, Rizal, while Colegio de San Juan de Letran's high school is found within its college campus at Intramuros. While these two high schools are integrated within their colleges, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde is not directly connected with its high school affiliate, La Salle Green Hills (LSGH), except that they are both administered by the Lasallian Brothers. As a result, DLSU-CSB labels "St. Benilde" instead of "La Salle" on their jerseys.
In the 87th season of the NCAA, cheerleading has been upgraded to a "regular sport" which means it will contribute points in the overall championship race. In the 91st season of the league, poomsae was added as a "demonstration sport" being part of the taekwondo event.
The General Champion for the each division in an academic year is determined by a points system similar to the one used in Formula One, where the school with the highest accumulated score from all events in a division wins the General Championship. A championship in an event entitles a school with 40 points, the second placer 30, up to eighth place, with five points. For an example, see the tabulation of points for Season 84.
The NCAA experienced a golden age during the postwar years. The Loyola Center at the Ateneo campus became the new home of the league. Due to the home court advantage of the Ateneo, Blue Eagles' games were held on the old Rizal Memorial.[12]
1950s
The 1950s will be known in the annals of history as one of the best decades of the NCAA. The start of the decade was the glory year of the fabled Letran Murder Inc.[14] Eventually, it will be the Ateneo de Manila Blue Eagles and San Beda Red Lions who would be locking horns during the fabled era.[15]
The 1950s was also known as the decade of the Crispulo Zamora Cup. The Crispulo Zamora Cup was the trophy to be awarded by the NCAA for the first team to get three championship crowns.[15]
The Letran Knights started with their 1950 campaign bannering their legendary Murder Inc. However, they lost steam when San Beda and Ateneo traded championships thereafter. San Beda won the crown in 1951 and the 1952 season. Ateneo stopped San Beda in 1953 and secured the 1954 championship. The 1955 season was the deciding year for the Crispulo Zamora Cup which San Beda eventually won.
In the post Zamora Cup era, La Salle made their own statement by winning the crown in 1956. Still, Ateneo was undaunted and secured the 1957 and 1958 trophy. A third straight post-Zamora crown was only foiled by San Beda in 1959 ending the legendary decade of the 1950s.
1960s to 1980s
NCAA basketball champions formed the core of the Filipino team sent to international competitions during 1960 and 1961 in Japan. The opening of the Araneta Coliseum, the largest indoor arena in the Philippines, prompted the league to transfer the championship round there.[12]
By the 1960s, the league experienced problems such as eligibility of players and interscholastic hooliganism. This led to disagreements among member schools, and as a result the 1962–63 season was suspended, and the following two seasons were held in a loose conference format, where the home and away system was used. San Sebastian College - Recoletos joined the league in 1969.[16]Trinity College of Quezon City also joined in 1974, the league's golden anniversary, according to newspapers and other publications of that year.[17] (However, the NCAA's official website states that Trinity joined the league in 1985; see next section.)[18]
The 1978 San Beda Red Lions, NCAA seniors' basketball back to back champions.
After the riotous games of the late 1970s,[19] several of the founding members left the league. The Ateneo de Manila University left the league in 1978 due to violence,[19] which also marred a championship series with San Beda,[20] while La Salle left after a riotous game with Letran in 1980.[21] Ateneo de Manila was accepted in the UAAP in 1978,[22] while La Salle had to wait for six years to become a UAAP member.[23] San Beda left the league in 1983, reasoning that the college focused on school-based sports activities like intramurals.[16]
With the withdrawal of Ateneo de Manila, league games returned to the old Rizal Memorial and to the PhilSports Arena, since the Loyola Center was now the location of the UAAP tournament. Also with the withdrawal of the three founding members, most daily publications tagged the NCAA as "an ironic journey from sports to violence."[16]
1980s to 1990s expansion
As the league was reduced to four members, new membership was actively pursued. Perpetual Help College of Rizal was accepted as a member in 1984.[24] A year later, Trinity College of Quezon City finally was accepted as a full member after being a probationary member for more than a decade, according to publications of that period[17]).[25] However, Trinity was not able to meet league requirements and was dropped from the league in 1986, the same year San Beda returned (despite sports articles in newspapers that year stating Trinity voluntarily left the league).[12]
Measures were taken to prevent major brawls from starting such as the patrolling by the respective faculties of the member schools, to control the behavior of the crowd were implemented as part of the remedy to ensure the security during the NCAA games.[16]
Television coverage of NCAA basketball games was discontinued in the 1980s and 1990s by the TV networks due to the bad image of the League and frequent brawls during games. After several years of non television coverage of NCAA basketball games, television coverage was resumed by Vintage Television in 1998. The majority of the basketball games were aired live on IBC 13 until 1999. In 2000, the league switched the TV coverage from Vintage to the MCI group and games aired on People's Television Network but which aired only a single game of each playing day until the NCAA games were produced by Silverstar Sports in 2001.
A major breakthrough occurred when the league, upon the initiative of host school San Beda, made a move that switched the television coverage of NCAA games from MCI group to ABS-CBN on March 18, 2002. Previously, only the Final Four and the Championship games were televised, but with the five-year contract inked with ABS-CBN, a majority of the elimination round basketball games were also aired, giving the league bigger exposure to fans, students and alumni.[16] ABS-CBN would later air the games on its international affiliate, The Filipino Channel, making the games viewable to alumni and fans abroad.[26]
In 1998, the affiliated schools in the Calabarzon region and southern Metro Manila established NCAA South, an offshoot of the league.[29] The schools of NCAA South do not compete with the schools in the main league.
The return of a Mapúa Juniors team, which took a leave of absence beginning Season 81 (2005–06) was scheduled in Season 83 (2007–08). Malayan High School will represent the Mapúa Institute of Technology in the Juniors Division of the NCAA. This newly established High School would only be fully operational by school year 2007–08.[30] However, the scheduled return of the Mapua Junior varsity team did not materialize and instead it resumed participation in Season 84 (2008–09).[31]
After it was revealed that several players of the PCU juniors' basketball team enrolled with spurious documents, PCU's seniors and juniors teams were suspended in the 2007–08 season.[32] The seniors teams participated in the 2008–09 season, but all teams would take an indefinite leave of absence starting with the 2009–10 season.[33] As a result, the Management Committee conducted a search for PCU's replacement but it was decided that such replacements would be deferred to Season 86 (2010–11).[34] The league opted to invite guest teams instead, with Angeles University Foundation (AUF), Arellano University (AU), and Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC) being the invitees, and being eligible to win championships.[35] In Season 86, AU's and EAC's status were upgraded to probationary membership.[36]Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU), which had earlier sought membership, was accepted as a guest team in the Season 87 (2011–12).[37] Arellano became a regular member in Season 89 (2013–14) after meeting the league requirements,[38] this is then followed by EAC and Lyceum in Season 91 (2015–16).[39]
^The lack of a high school varsity program prevented Lyceum from being a guest member for Season 85. In Season 87, the high school program of Lyceum of the Philippines University–Cavite was accepted as the juniors team of Lyceum.
^The original Mapúa High School represented the Mapúa juniors team from 1930 to 2005.
^Masoy, Niel Victor C. (December 18, 2020). "NCAA eyes return to old home". The Manila Times. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2021. the oldest collegiate league in the country
^"History". arellano.edu.ph. Arellano University. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
^ ab
Jazmines, Tessa (November 28, 2006). "Blue and red clash again". The Business Mirror. Archived from the original on October 16, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2006.
^ abcdeNCAA: An Endless Saga The Bedan. June 2005 issue
^ ab"Bernie's boys". Sports World. VI (42). Quezon City: Sports World, Inc.: 5 November 18–24, 1978.
NCAA Season 99
Mapúa Cardinals (21 titles)
San Beda Red Cubs (15 titles)
