FOR the first time, the University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) and the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) will open their sports calendar simultaneously today, September 7.
The UAAP kicks off its 87th season with men’s basketball games at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The NCAA begins its centennial season also with men’s basketball at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
For years, the NCAA usually started the college sports season a week ahead of the UAAP.
The University of the Philippines (UP), this year’s hosts, has tapped the legendary rock band Eraserheads to headline its opening ceremony at 11 a.m.
The main feature of the day will be the “Battle of Katipunan” between last year’s runner-up UP Fighting Maroons and the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) Blue Eagles at 6:30 p.m.
“Our opening ceremony is a celebration of the spirit of unity amid the rivalry that defines the UAAP. This year, we aim to celebrate not only the competitive edge of our universities but also the camaraderie and a shared passion that brings us together,” said UAAP Season 87 President and UP Diliman Chancellor Edgardo Carlo Vistan II.
The UAAP will have three basketball events — men’s, women’s, and high school boys — in the first semester of the school year.
The league also moved the men’s and women’s football tournament to September, from April and May, the height of summer, when searing temperatures could affect players.
The NCAA opening will feature performances by SB19’s Justine de Dios and the P-pop’s Female Alphas G22.
In keeping with its theme, “NCAA Siglo Uno: Inspiring Legacies,” the NCAA will honor its “10 greatest players of all time.”
“What we see here is something that is different, the excitement, the phase, the way that the sport is played is at its highest level. [Our athletes] all come in different walks in life, you see them develop their best at the end of their career in NCAA,” the league’s management committee chairman Hercules Callanta of the host school Lyceum of the Philippines University.
In the day’s first game, defending champion San Beda University (SBU) will take on Lyceum at 2:30 p.m.
Mapua University (MU) and De La Salle-College of St. Benilde clash next at 5 p.m.
The history of the two collegiate leagues is intertwined. In his book, “When We Were Champions,” sports author Noel Albano noted that the NCAA held its inaugural season in 1924. The league’s founding members were UP, Ateneo, La Salle, San Beda, University of Santo Tomas, Manila University, and National University.
Joining the NCAA later were Jose Rizal, Mapua, Letran, and Institute of Accounts, the forerunner of Far Eastern University.
UP was the first NCAA basketball champion, defeating Ateneo by the score, 29-27, Albano wrote.
Differences over player eligibility rules and other issues prompted UP, UST and NU to break away from the NCAA. In 1938, they formed the Inter-University Athletic Association, which later became the UAAP.
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