NCAA to resume all games on March 16

FILE – San Beda Lady Red Spikers vs St. Benilde Lady Blazers. INQUIRER PHOTO/AUGUST DELA CRUZ

MANILA, Philippines–The NCAA management committee has decided to resume all games on March 16, ending a five-week halt in its Season 95 calendar due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Mancom chair Peter Cayco of Arellano University said they will pick up from where they left in sports like volleyball, lawn tennis, soft tennis and football which were stopped in mid-tournament.

As a result, the NCAA calendar is moved by two months from its supposed end in March to May.

Cayco said it posed no threat to next season’s schedule because they have previously decided to move the beginning of Season 96 from June to August.

“We took into consideration several issues that we could not anticipate, but fortunately we planned the next season to start later so we had a buffer,” added Cayco.

In a meeting held Wednesday at Bayleaf, Mancom also discussed the fate of the NCAA television coverage, considering the pending franchise renewal of carrier ABS-CBN.

Cayco said that whatever happens, they want key activities like volleyball and cheer dance to have TV coverage.

Cheerdance, which traditionally enjoys big viewership, will be held March 30, which would be the last day the network giant if its franchise is not granted extension by the congress.

Cayco said they also moved to earlier dates beach volleyball and track and field tournaments which are major sports in the NCAA second semester.