About NCAA

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is an athletics association originally of eight colleges and universities in the Philippines. Established in 1924, the NCAA is the oldest athletic association in the country. The Philippine NCAA is not connected to the NCAA of the United States.

The Policy Board and the Management Committee handles the affairs of the league. The Board and the Committee are composed of representatives of the 7 regular and 2 probationary member schools, and determine the acceptance and suspension of member schools, game reversals and replays, and other official actions.

During the nearly yearlong season from June to March, each school participates in 11 sports; each sport is conducted in two divisions: the Juniors for male high-school students, and the Seniors for college students. There are male and female Seniors divisions for some events. The Juniors and Seniors divisions each award a General Championship trophy at the end of the academic year to the school which had the best performance in all sports, based on the total amount of points scored in a Championship tally.

With basketball as the principal sport, rivalries have developed within schools. Rivalries have led to withdrawal from the league of some members as some games escalated into full-blown brawls. The NCAA took measures to prevent major brawls, such as the segregation of arenas into supporters of different schools. With the withdrawal of members schools came the admission of new members into the league. As of 2006-'07, the league is contemplating an expansion into Division II athletics, although after 2008-'09, PCU will take an indefinite leave of absence after it was discovered that several high school players used spurious documents to enroll at the school. As a result, the league had seven members starting at the 2009-10 season.

The NCAA sponsors eleven sports, which are divided into two divisions: the Juniors division for high school students and the Seniors division for college students. There are male and female Seniors divisions for some events.

Each member college or university has an affiliated high school that competes in the Juniors division. For example, San Beda College's affiliated high school is its campus at Taytay, Rizal, while Letran College's high school is found within its college campus at Intramuros. While these two high schools are integrated within their colleges, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde is not directly connected with its high school affiliate, La Salle Green Hills (LSGH), except that they are both administered by the Lasallian Brothers. As a result, LSGH labels "St. Benilde" instead of "La Salle" on their jerseys.

The NCAA sponsors the following sports for Juniors and Seniors: basketball, chess, swimming, football, taekwondo, tennis, and track and field. Volleyball, table tennis, and beach volleyball are hosted on the Juniors and Seniors level as well as on both a men's and women's level. Cheerleading, Women's Taekwondo and Soft Tennis are demonstrational sports and is not used in the tabulating of each school's final score, and determination of the season's General Champion.

The General Champion for the each division in an academic year is determined by a points system similar to the one used in Formula One, where the school with the highest accumulated score from all events in a division wins the General Championship. A championship in an event entitles a school with 30 points, the second placer 20, up to eighth place, with one point.
Currently, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde and San Beda College compete in all Seniors' sports, while La Salle Green Hills, San Beda College and University of Perpetual Help System DALTA participates in all Juniors' sports.

Source: NCAA.org.ph