NCAA sets ‘duel’ with UAAP

A MORE aggressive NCAA will compete with the UAAP head on this year, setting a television faceoff with its rival varsity league and vowing to bring games to the provinces.

The NCAA announced during hosting turnover rites yesterday that TV5 will air its games Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The Thursday and Saturday schedules clash with the UAAP games aired on those same days on ABS-CBN’s Studio 23.

“The goal is really to be a national athletic league and to reach out to other Filipinos in the country,” Letran rector and president Rev. Fr. Tamerlane Lana, O.P. said in the league’s turnover ceremony yesterday in the Knights’ campus.

Perpetual Help president Dr. Anthony Tamayo turned over the hosting chores of Season 88 to Letran, led by Lana and athletic director and league representative Fr. Vic Calvo.

“It will be a head-to-head battle with the UAAP,” said Calvo, adding that the league will bring its basketball games to provinces, where amateur hoops still draws interest.

The NCAA recently hooked up with TV5 via a three-year deal after toiling under the shadows of the UAAP at Studio 23.