NCAA Looks to Replicate PBA Bubble for Season 96

The recently-concluded Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup bubble in Clark has become a major success for Philippine sports that other leagues are now hoping to replicate that success.

Among those leagues is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 

The league previously announced that it would still push through with Season 96 even though the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) has already canceled Season 83 due to the still ongoing 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic. NCAA officials were present at a consultation meeting with PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial and among the talking points was the blueprint that the PBA used for the Clark bubble.

Father Vic Calvo OP of the Season 96 host school, the Collegio de San Juan de Letran Knights said, "That's a possibility (about the NCAA bubble), but we'll see what happens,"

NCAA already has multiple proposals on how they can hold Season 96 which they hope to open in the second quarter of 2021. One is splitting basketball and volleyball events into two groups where one will play in Intramuros while the other will be played in either Recto or Mendiola. The other proposal is to hold everything else like how the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games are being held and will be finished in a span of two to three weeks. 

A Season 96 bubble is a bigger idea considering the fact that we're talking about student-athletes. Like Calvo and the rest of the league, NCAA fans will have to wait to know how Season 96 will happen.  

Photo is from Brgy. Ginebra San Miguel