As the Mapua University gets to be the host school for this years’ NCAA Season 101, the collegiate league now changes their tournament format for basketball and volleyball.
Group Stages, Play-Ins and Expanded Playoffs
From a story made by Matthew Li of Tiebreaker Times, he quoted NCAA Season 101 Management Committee Chairman, Melchor Divina, on what to expect next season:
“Gagawa kami ng kakaibang tournament format na pinaghalo yung NBA at US NCAA,”
That being said, a more detailed explanation of the format would be:
10 schools will now be randomly divided into 2 groups. Teams under Group A will play one another, same goes with those who are in Group B, for the 1st round of the eliminations.
The 2nd round will now feature teams from Group A with a better win-loss record going up against teams Group B with a lower record during the 1st round of eliminations. Same goes to those top teams from Group B.
After the 2nd round of eliminations, squads will then regain their focus on their original Groups, as the 4th seeded and 5th seeded teams will face each other making it as the “Play-In Tournament”. Whoever wins it, joins the last ticket to the quarterfinals, joining the Top 3 teams.
Once the final 8 teams are locked in, it will now then be the traditional playoffs wherein we’ll see: 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5.
As of the moment, all stages of the playoffs, from quarterfinals up until the finals, are a Best-of-Three series, but still has a possibility to be changed before the season begins.
With this new format, the league has abandoned their usual tournament rules, which is: that only Top 4 teams will advance in the playoffs after the two rounds of eliminations. Top 1 and Top 2 will get a twice-to-beat advantage in the Semifinals and the Finals will feature a Best-of-Three series.
A Brand New Dawn
The NCAA Season 101 will begin sometime in October 2025 with also showing off a brand new logo?!
“Siguro, isa sa mga magiging kakaibang dating is we changed the logo of the NCAA. Fina-finetune na lang natin,” said Divina.
This only meant that the league would embark on a new beginning after a century. The collegiate league will select their 2nd logo from a poster making contest.
