THE NCAA will hold seven seniors games a week for Season 90 to avoid another long-drawn-out basketball tournament.
Season 90 of the country's oldest collegiate league unfolds on June 28, with defending champion San Beda facing Jose Rizal at 12 p.m. and last year's runner up Letran taking on San Sebastian at 2 p.m.
The 10-team league held six games a week last season, resulting in an extended basketball tournament, starting in late June and ending in mid-November, already the second semester in most schools.
NCAA Management Committee chair Paul Supan of host Jose Rizal said on Thursday they will now hold one game on Saturdays plus the regular two-game schedule Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
“We've added a Saturday game so as to address the issue from last year when our season reached as long as November. This is basically to shorten the season a bit,” said Supan.
Apart from adding one game a week, Supan said they've also changed the time schedule of the seniors games at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., much earlier than the mid-afternoon start in the previous season. Juniors matches will be held 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The Saturday game is set at 12:30 p.m.
The league board and television partner TV5 have agreed in principle to show all games live, with the first games being shown on its free sports channel AksyonTV and the Saturday and second games simultaneous on AksyonTV and TV5.
“These changes were already agreed upon by the league and TV5 and we're happy with it,” said Supan.
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