MAYBE NEXT SEASON
Citing a potentially bad precedent that could hurt the UAAP as a whole, executive director Rebo Saguisag said on Wednesday that the league has politely declined a request by the PBA to allow its student-athlete basketball players to declare for the pro league’s Rookie Draft while the collegiate season is ongoing.
“We have to politely decline, at least for this season,” Saguisag said during the launch of the 88th Season that the University of Santo Tomas will host. “We know the merit and advantages that it will grant the student-athletes.
“However, when we make that decision [as the UAAP], it’s not per sport or per division,” he went on, with women’s volleyball as an example. “It’s for the whole sporting program of all events, so there are implications.”
Willie Marcial said that he made the request to Saguisag after player-agents made the appeal as early as “two to three months back.”
The deadline for application for the PBA Draft is on Friday, with the proceedings to be held on Sept. 7. The UAAP season gets off the ground a couple of weeks after that.
“We fully understand their plight, because if they (graduating players) fail to join the Draft with the UAAP just set to start, they will effectively be inactive for close to a year before the next Draft happens,” Marcial told the Inquirer over the phone.
“But we fully understand (the UAAP decision),” he went on. “And Atty. Rebo told me that they will give it further study.”
The other collegiate league, the NCAA, allows its graduating players to declare for the Draft even during the season, but the UAAP thinking is different because the women’s volleyball event, can potentially be raided.
The PVL is enjoying massive popularity, with teams paying top-tier players big money, much like the PBA.
“We need to carefully study all the implications, not only for basketball, but for all sporting events in the future,” Saguisag said. “We need our regulations to be consistent.
“They [PBA] understood. Comm. Willie understood our position.”
Saguisag, though, clarified that the league is not stopping anyone from declaring for the PBA Draft.
He did, however, reiterate that in order for those players to be drafted, they’d have to make a decision on whether or not they’d forgo their playing years or not.
“Of course, they can be drafted. It’s their choice,” Saguisag said. “But they also have to make a choice if they’ll forego their (collegiate) eligibility. That’s what’ll happen. We’re not stopping anyone.
“It’s just that our rule is right now, if you join the draft, you forgo your eligibility.”
