THE third season of the National Basketball League (NBL) will have a new format with the start of the Black Arrow-President’s Cup beginning on Saturday, November 16 at the Filoil Flying V Centre.
For the first time, the NBL will feature a two-conference format beginning with the President’s Cup as 14 teams including Season 2 champion Taguig Generals will battle to become the first conference champion.
Also under the new format, the first and second conference titlists will battle each other to determine the season champion which will take home the league’s Perpetual Trophy.
The Generals, for the first conference, are bracketed in Group A along with Cavite Ballers, Quezon City Defenders, CamSur Express, Muntinlupa Emeralds, Caloocan Lifenet Executives, and Pasig El Pirata.
Season 2 runner-up Pampanga Delta is in Group B and is joined by the Parañaque Aces, La Union Paowers, Zamboanga Valientes, Laguna Pistons, Nueva Ecija Bespren, and Marikina Best Shoemakers.

Teams in each group will play round-robin to determine their respective seedings for the playoff round.
An opening ceremony of the tournament for homegrown talents will be held at 5 p.m. before the lone game feature at 6 p.m. between Caloocan and Cavite to be aired live on Solar Sports.
La Union will take on Zamboanga, while Laguna will battle Quezon City in the next doubleheader on Sunday, November 17 to be held in Quezon City.
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