The UAAP board announced earlier today that the league is doing away with the thrice-to-beat advantage given to teams who sweep the elimination round of their respective sport.
In the pre-tournament press conference of the UAAP held at the Novotel Hotel in Quezon City, UAAP board president Fr. Ermito De Sagon O.P. revealed that teams who sweep the elimination round will instead get a twice-to-beat incentive.
The Final Four will still follow the stepladder elimination process, with the fourth seed facing the third seed in a one game, win-or-go-home match-up. The winner of that match-up then faces the second seed who will hold a twice-to-beat advantage.
“We talked about this and we saw that with the thrice-to-beat, the series was becoming more of a best-of-five rather than a best-of-three with the top team gaining a one game advantage. We wanted to shorten the series in the event of a sweep,” the UAAP Season 79 president bared.
Asked whether the move will also shorten the off time for the sweeping team, De Sagon emphasized that their wait might still be the same.
The long gap between games for the team who sweeps has been a cause of concern for several seasons.
De Sagon stressed that it is still up to that team regarding how they deal with the long breaks.
“The wait (for the team who sweeps) might still be the same depending on how the other games go,” he added.
“It’s up to that team what they will do with the break.”
The UAAP first implemented the thrice-to-beat incentive last UAAP Season 71 after the University of the East Red Warriors swept the men’s basketball season back in Season 70 but fell to the De La Salle University Green Archers.
