The much-anticipated return of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) will kick off with the men’s basketball tournament on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
The Season 84 of UAAP, the country’s premier collegiate league, will be hosted by De La Salle University.
After a two-year hiatus, eight universities will once again compete in different sports in their bid for the general championship crown currently held by the University of Santo Tomas.
Based on reports, the teams to compete for the first round of the men’s basketball tournament on March 26 are as follows:
- FEU vs UST at 10 a.m.
- AdU vs NU at 1 p.m.
- Ateneo vs UP at 4 p.m.
- DLSU vs UE at 7 p.m.
The onsite or live audience is still prohibited for now due to the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Fans can watch the games through UAAP’s broadcast partners Smart Communications via its GigaPlay app and Cignal.
GigaPlay can be downloaded on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
UAAP said that they will continue to reassess its restrictions and monitor the situation after the first basketball round.
Many sports fans have previously voiced out their call to allow them to watch in the venue.
In the current setup, all the men’s basketball games will be held on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Competing teams will also follow a quadruple-header format with scheduled tip-off times at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
TV personality Gretchen Ho also posted a photo of the complete schedule for the tournament, along with photos of the new correspondents and analysts on her page.
“The UAAP is back and we are #FullyAlive! 18 new “correspondents” will report for the 8 UAAP schools via different platforms that will be streaming & broadcasting the games!” Gretchen said on her post.
Aside from the men’s basketball games, UAAP also previously announced the following sports that comprise this season:
- Men’s 5×5 basketball
- Men’s 3×3 basketball
- Women’s indoor volleyball
- Men’s beach volleyball
- Chess
- Poomsae
- Cheerdance competition
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