No more PCCL

Organizers scrap collegiate champions league due to conflicts of schedules, lack of TV partner

AFTER exhausting all efforts, organizers and officials of the Philippine Collegiate Champions League (PCCL) decided to cancel the 2016-2017 season of the national collegiate championships.

PCCL commissioner Joe Lipa told Sun.Star Cebu that they decided to shelve the National Collegiate Championship because of a lot of factors made it impossible for them to stage the annual collegiate tournament.

“Tthe regional and zonal elimina- tion games of the National Collegiate Championships for 2016-2017 will not be held. Variables like TV coverage, schedules of some leagues and others made it impossible for PCCL to conduct the games this time. We are hopeful that we can resume this 2017-2018. Thank you so much for your support,” Lipa said in his text message.

Before the official announcement, Lipa was working out the details of the coverage with another TV network after his fallout with ABS-CBN Sports in the middle of last year.

Lipa’s project to revive the regional commercial basketball tournament was eventually turned down by the TV giant following the number postponements of the much-hyped Countrywide Basketball League (CWBL).

Instead, ABS-CBN signed a deal to cover the Asean Basketball League (ABL) at its Sports+Action Channel, which is currently on going.

Lipa was also trying to convince the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) to organize and hold regional qualifying tournaments, which was also rejected by the basketball organization.

Aside from this, the PCCL had to deal with the fallout when it decided to award two champions last year. Teams from the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. has also blasted the league for sloppy hosting.