Another UAAP Season came to a close on Wednesday afternoon.
Season 80 hosts Far Eastern University made various innovations during their hosting year, including moving the Juniors Volleyball Tournament to the Filoil Flying V Centre and the addition of 3×3 basketball as an exhibition sport.
With this, Season 81 hosts National University look to continue the league’s evolution with numerous changes in store.
First off, the league will look to move some of the second semester events to the first semester. Currently, the first semester has seven seniors events, with some lasting just four days. On the other hand, the second semester sports feature numerous team events that last for months.
With this, events like athletics, fencing, and chess overlap with the baseball/softball, volleyball, and football tournaments, making it hard for the schools to organize and for publications to cover.
NU’s member to the board of directors, Nilo Ocampo, disclosed that they are looking to spread out the calendar by moving some of the second semester sports to the first semester.
“There will be some events na second semester events, imo-move namin sa first semester. Like track and field, I think fencing, and chess,” Ocampo shared. “Second semester siya ngayon, so may request ang other board members kung pwede i-move sa [first] semester.
“There are too many events sa second semester, so gusto nila ilagay sa first semester ang iba para equally distributed.”
Moreover, there are proposals to include more exhibition sports for Season 81, including the return of ballroom dancing and the addition of futsal.
“We’ll continue with the 3×3, we’ll continue with the Street Dance Competition, both juniors and seniors. Again, kasi exhibition sports ‘yun, we’ll continue with that. So the add on would be the ballroom dancing,” disclosed Ocampo.
“Futsal, some recommend, we’ll still have to decide on that.”
The tentative date of Season 81’s curtain-raiser will be on September 8 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena. But prior to that, NU will make sure to disseminate an official UAAP rule book to all coaches across the league. This will help serve as the standard for all inquiries as to avoid controversy regarding eligibility, rules, and regulations.
“We’ll try and continue what FEU did, dapat walang controversy. We’ll come out with a new rule book already. May rule book na. That will be out, it was approved already today. We’re hoping na ma-disseminate sa lahat ng mga coaches already,” said Ocampo.
“So may rule book, officially, may official rule book na ang UAAP.”
Safe to say, NU are planning to go for greater come their hosting year.
