UAAP in state of confusion?

The battle of one-upmanship has created a state of confusion in the UAAP where rules are manipulated, circumvented and tweaked year after year to either favor or disfavor some schools, depending on what’s in it for the parties scratching each other’s back.

It appears that the situation has gone out of control and the school presidents are stepping in to clear the mess. Those now serving in the UAAP Board will be relegated to perform operating functions with the presidents taking over the decision-making on sensitive policy issues. The change will come starting the 80th season as the body where the presidents will serve has still to go through the usual incorporation process. 

At the start, it’s critical for the presidents to make time and set the ground rules for the work ahead. That means prioritizing the UAAP with personal attention. No proxies, no representatives at least during the period of transition. For too long, the UAAP’s principles have been compromised by hagglers with hidden agendas. The time has come to initiate meaningful reforms.

From the grapevine, we’ve heard these rumors that only affirm the state of confusion prevailing in the UAAP.

• Will the UAAP penalize a school for submitting contradictory transcripts? A certain player was cleared to suit up in the 78th season on the basis of academic records showing only one failure in four subjects. But when this player asked for his transcript to move to another school, the record was different and reflected four failures in five subjects. If the record of four failures in five subjects was submitted to the UAAP, the player wouldn’t have been eligible for the 78th season. Apparently, some hocus-pocus was used to doctor the record so the player would be eligible. 

The player sat out the 79th season to establish residency in his new school. His record shows he passed the minimum requirement for eligibility so there won’t be a problem to play in the 80th season. But he shouldn’t have been allowed to play in the 78th season if the gauge is the transcript that was used for his transfer. Obviously, there was manipulation. Will this dirt just be swept under the rug and forgotten?

• Will this high school player be scratched out of the lineup for submitting incomplete academic records? He’s 18 and in Grade 9. The player failed four subjects but passed the remedial in summer classes before transferring to another school. He submitted his transcript to the UAAP showing no attendance in at least two previous years. But a resourceful researcher found out the player was actually enrolled in his home province during those years when he supposedly was out of school. Turning in incomplete academic records is a violation of rules. Surely, the player must know if he went to school or not in any particular year. The discovery came after the player led his varsity team to a 7-0 record in the junior basketball division. Will he now be expelled? Will those seven wins be reversed? How will the UAAP decide on the player’s fate?

• Will a foreign player undergo a two-year residency in his new school or sit out only one year? A UAAP school recruited a foreign player from the NCAA on the assumption that he will only serve a one-year residency. The rule used to be a transferring foreign player would sit out one year in his new school if he had been in the country one year before. But when Ben Mbala moved from Southwestern University in Cebu to La Salle, the UAAP Board extended the residency of transferring foreign students to two years in their new school. It was in retaliation for imposing a two-year residency on a fresh Filipino high school graduate transferring from one UAAP school to another. The two-year residency for a fresh Filipino high school graduate was later removed by law but the Mbala rule has remained in what seems to be clearly discriminatory. The question is if the Mbala rule may be circumvented by a majority vote of the UAAP Board to allow a particular transferring foreign player to skirt the two-year residency. Is an existing rule subject to negotiation?

• Will the UAAP continue to tolerate the open commercialization of players? In the US collegiate leagues, players are not allowed to be managed by agents or handlers. When he was in high school, LeBron James was sanctioned for accepting shirts from a retailer in exchange for posing in front of the store for a picture that was a de facto endorsement. Commercialization is for pros, not for collegiate players. In the Philippines, collegiate players are openly peddled by agents for commercial endorsements and contracts. If commercialization and playing basketball go hand in hand, where is the priority of education? 

• Will there be a crackdown on unscrupulous game-fixers approaching UAAP players? It’s a fact that some players have been offered large sums of money up to P1 Million to drop a game. Point spreads are of public knowledge. When players turn down offers, the next step for fixers is to make threats and that becomes a hairy security issue. What about the referees? Surely, they’re aware of the point spreads. What can be done to protect the integrity of the game, to secure the players, coaches and referees and to stamp out game-fixers?

• How will the UAAP treat cases where it is overruled by the courts even on a temporary basis? This season, a player, who was ruled ineligible for violating terms of his residency, mocked the UAAP by managing to see action in four games on the strength of a TRO. Two of the four games were wins. When the TRO lapsed, the player couldn’t continue seeing action. On record, will the two wins be forfeited? His school didn’t make it to the Final Four but so what? What will now prevent another player to go to court and obtain a TRO to contest a UAAP decision if there are no sanctions one way or the other? This is an unsettled and unresolved issue which once more puts to doubt the UAAP’s credibility.

If the UAAP can’t get its act together, can you imagine the poor example the Board sets for the academic community? Where has the spirit of honest competition gone? If school officials won’t even blink in compromising principles to safeguard their selfish interests, how can they earn the respect of athletes and students?