THE University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) is looking at a February 2022 opening for the league’s Season 84.
But everything depends on whether or not the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) will allow the league to go on with actual competitions.
“We’re hoping we could start the games by the second semester,” University of the Philippines College of Human Kinetics Dean Francisco “Kiko” Diaz told BusinessMirror on Monday. “We will come up with events granting we could do it.”
“We haven’t talked about what sports will be played but of course we’re looking for men’s basketball and women’s volleyball because that’s our commitment to Cignal TV,” Diaz, a member of the UAAP Board of Managing Directors, added.
The UAAP signed Cignal TV as its official broadcast partner and sponsor after abs-cbn shut down last year.
Mark Molina, also a managing director representing Far Eastern University, confirmed the league’s intention to open Season 84 in the second semester, and echoed Diaz’s revelation on the UAAP’s commitment to hold the group’s two most popular sports.
“But basketball and volleyball will probably not start at the same time,” Molina said.
The UAAP canceled Season 83 in pandemic year 2020 but maintained De La Salle as general host of Season 84.
Diaz also stressed that the UAAP wanted all student athletes to be inoculated with anti-Covid-19 vaccine before opening the games.
“Our main focus is for all their student-athletes to be vaccinated so that they can be allowed to have face-to-face games,” Diaz said. “So far, our discussion is more on the formal opening ceremony.”
He also raised the possibility of holding the games in a bubble.
“It’s still part of the discussion and they are willing to do that depending on the approval of the IATF,” he said. “The Commission on Higher Education and the IATF will give us the go signal.”
Diaz also shunned the possibility of the UAAP holding virtual competitions in select sports and events, like the National Collegiate Athletic Association which is opening its 96th season on June 13 with a virtual or made-for-television season with broadcast partner GMA 7.
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