NCAA Philippines Basketball Championship
 |
|
| Sport | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1924 |
| No. of teams | 10 |
| Country |
 Philippines
|
| Most recent champion(s) |
San Beda Red Lions (Seniors) Malayan Red Robins (Juniors) |
| TV partner(s) | VTV on IBC-13 (1998–1999), PTV-4 (2000–2001), ABS-CBN Sports on Studio 23 (2002–2011) ABS-CBN Sports and Action (2015-present), ABS-CBN Sports + Action HD (2016-present), Sports5 (AKTV on IBC (2012), AksyonTV (2013-2014) and TV5 (2014) |
| Official website | sports.abs-cbn.com/NCAA |
The National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament is held every first semester of the academic year (from June up to October). Each year, eight schools vie to win the two championships: the Juniors and Seniors. If a school wins both championships in one season, it said that they have won the "double championship."
The tournament commences with a double-round robin of eliminations, where the four teams with the best records advance to the semifinals, with the two top seeds clinching the twice to beat advantage. The winners in the semifinals meet in a best-of-3 Finals series, in order to determine the champion.
The championship is continually contested since the league's foundation in 1924, except during World War II and the mid-1960s when scandals rocked the league.
The athletic nicknames of the different teams variously came from the school's founders, or from a distinct quality that separated a school from the others.
Notably, the first champion of this event was crowned in 1925, 14 years before the U.S. NCAA tournament was instituted.
Since 1996, the eight member schools have fielded their varsity teams in a double round elimination tournament, where the schools play each other twice. The four teams with the best records advance to the crossover semifinals, popularly known as the Final Four.
The two top teams have a twice to beat advantage. The lower ranked teams need to win twice against the higher ranked teams to advance to the best-of-three Finals, where the first team to reach two wins becomes the NCAA basketball champion.
If any event a team finishes the elimination round undefeated, that team will advance outright to the Finals. The third and fourth seed will have a sudden-death game to determine the opponent of the second seed. Then, the winner of the sudden-death match between the second seed and third/fourth seed advances to the Finals to face the first seed. Previously, the first seed holds a twice to beat advantage in the Finals (the Finals would not be a best of three affair), until 2008, the finals was in a best-of-three series even if a team swept the elimination round. Since 2010 the team who sweeps the elimination round will automatically go to the Finals with a thrice-to-beat advantage and a 1-0 edge over their opponent, their opponent needs to beat them thrice while the team who sweeps the 2-round elimination will just have to beat their opponents twice.
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Wikipedia