UAAP Season 78 kicks off Sept. 5
The UAAP has adjusted its schedule in line with the shift in the school calendar, setting a Sept. 5 opening for the Season 78 hostilities instead of the usual July kick off.
“We’re moving the opening to September due to the shift in academic calendar,” said University of the Philippines Diliman Chancellor Dr. Michael Tan after formally accepting hosting chores during Saturday night’s Season 77 closing ceremonies at University of the East Theater.
“Four of the eight member schools – UP, UST, Ateneo and La Salle – are starting in August. This is the reason we’re opening in September.”
He said the primary task now is to fix scheduling with the first semester running well into the Christmas holidays and the second semester events reaching summertime.
“There will be a spill over to December, into the Christmas season, but we’re working it out with the venues and the UAAP board. The second sem will also be moved and a lot of games will be starting in January,” said Tan.
For season 78, the league has also reduced the participation of foreign players to one per team from the old maximum of two. This, according to officials, is preparatory to totally going all-Filipino in the near future.
The controversial two-year residency requirement for transferring high school students remain technically in effect pending enactment of a Magna Carta for Student-Athletes, but UP College of Human Kinetics Dean Ronnie Dizer maintained that member schools have actually been allowing the transfers freely now.
“We’re waiting for the Magna Carta but we don’t see any problem anymore because we’re actually following what the proposed Magna Carta requires. Members have taken an open-minded approach and have been releasing players; they have realized the importance of this (allowing students to choose their colleges) to protect the interest of student-athletes,” said Dizer.
The league is also taking steps to adapt to the K to 12 Program, which essentially extends the primary and high school years of students. UAAP officials see a dearth in freshman recruits by 2016 and 2017 because of the new curriculum so proposals are being made to “relax” some rules.
“There are proposals but we haven’t agreed to them yet, as to how we can cope up with the K to 12 scenario wherein there are no recruits (from high school). The idea is how to maintain the quality of the athletes, the games, so we’ll be relaxing some of the rules to achieve that,” said Dizer.