You have to love the enthusiasm of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas. Any effort that renders the refusing-to-die old BAP further into oblivion is always welcome news to real lovers of the game. And so we come to the latest and to date most ambitious project of the SBP. Pushing for a genuine nationwide college basketball champion through a coordinated multi-regional format sounds like a great idea that has been a long time coming. Bringing smaller, never-heard schools, teams and players into the national consciousness as part of the grassroots approach also sounds great. Or is it?

Sometime last week the SBP had a quiet little signing event over at the PLDT corporate headquarters in Makati City. PLDT head honcho and SBP President Manny Pangilinan and Philippine Collegiate Champions League head Rey Gamboa formally agreed to hold the Philippine Collegiate Championship or PCC. (For some reason other people refer to it as the PCCG, confusing not a few folks who mistakenly think it’s a government agency)

Over 250 teams in some 40 different locations and venues all over the country have apparently joined this “super league”, including the two biggest collegiate basketball tournaments, the UAAP and the NCAA. “We wanted to include as many schools and teams as possible, and of course that includes the big ones, UAAP and NCAA,” explained Gamboa during the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement.

Apparently the entire alphabet soup worth of college basketball tournaments and leagues are participating in the PCC. Apart from the UAAP and NCAA, the NAASCU, NCRAA, UCAA, CESAFI, SCLUAA and a bunch of other leagues and tournaments most of us never knew existed are all in the PCC. “There is actually no organized tournament in Samar – Leyte as well as in Bohol, so part of our objectives is to help those two regions form tournaments for the PCC,” Gamboa said. Wow. So now not only have they gotten all the leagues and tournaments, they are actually even going to help organize regions without organizations.

Those who follow US NCAA basketball should find the tournament format very familiar. In fact they may find themselves doing a double-take to make sure they haven’t woken up in Chapel Hill or Westwood or Lansing. There will be regional, Zonal and National levels to the PCC, including (you guessed it) a Sweet 16, a Final 4 and a one game only Finals. “By doing this we are actually looking to encourage schools and teams in the provinces to develop their programs and keep their best players instead of seeing their best going to the Metro Manila schools. You cannot win the national championship if you let your best players transfer to other schools,” explained Gamboa.

Apart from the leagues already mentioned, smaller tournaments in Metro Manila will also be looked into for inclusion. Parallel tournaments such as the Fr Martin Cup 2nd Division (recently concluded and won by University of the East over their Recto neighbors San Sebastian), the Home and Away Invitational (HAIL, also won by UE), and the three major summer tournaments – Fil-Oil & Flying V Invitational Cup, Nike Summer League and the Fr Martin Open Division – are all being considered for inclusion. “As I said we want to include as many schools and teams and to give as many opportunities as possible for participation into the PCC,” said Gamboa.

This is where things tend to get a little sticky. In the Sweet 16 level of the tournament, the UAAP and NCAA champions, as well as the UAAP and NCAA runners-up are already seeded in. They will join champions of the other leagues such as NAASCU, NCRAA, UCAA and CESAFI, as well as the champions of the provincial tournaments. Assuming different teams win the FMC Open, Nike and Fil-Oil summer tournaments and they are all included, that makes at least 10 Metro Manila schools in the Sweet 16. Mathematically that means the provincial teams have a less than 40% (37.5 to be exact) shot at winning the national title. Is that a national championship?

The sheer logistics of this tournament is also quite staggering. An estimated P10 million as been poured into this, and will most likely run up to double that amount by the time the first edition of this tournament comes to a close. That’s an awful lot of money going into something that may or may not be the genuine article.

If I were the PCC I would take a more careful look at which teams are going to be invited to the national tournament. They should avoid the pitfalls of the US NCAA that has long been accused and publicly vilified for its less than transparent policies and decision-making when it came to who would be invited to the national tournament.

To my mind a truly national collegiate basketball tournament should have equal representation from five geographic locations: the National Capital Region (to include CALABARZON), Northern and Central Luzon, the Visayas (to include Palawan) and Mindanao. Each region gets to send exactly four teams each. For the league-heavy NCR I’d give that to the UAAP, NCAA, NAASCU and NCRAA champions. The rest of the smaller leagues can kiss my hungover derriere. I wouldn’t even think about the off-season tournaments yet.

In other words I’d keep it as simple as possible since this is the first time around. This particular process sounds complicated and could wind up alienating more schools than it will attract.