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MPBL founder Manny Pacquiao talks to team owners Sunday night. MPBL |
MANILA--The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League will implement two major format changes for the MPBL Seventh Season starting on March 8 at the Capital Arena in Ilagan City, Isabela.
Heeding the team owners' recommendation, the MPBL has decided to make the North and South Division Finals a best-of-five series instead of the usual best-of-three affair. The National Finals pitting the North and South champions will remain a best-of-five battle.
The play-in tussle for the last two qualifying slots in both divisions after the conclusion of the round-robin elimination round was also approved.
Under this setup, the top six teams in the North and South advance outright to the quarterfinal playoffs, with the next four teams disputing the remaining two seats.
The seventh and eighth-ranked teams will collide for the right to join the top six in the quarterfinals.
The loser, however, gets another chance to become the eighth and last qualifier as it will still face the winner between the ninth and 10th-ranked teams.
MPBL Commissioner Kenneth Duremdes presided over the dinner meeting with the team owners, including those of newcomer Ilagan Isabela Cowboys and returning Basilan Starhorse, on Sunday, Feb. 2, at the Milky Way Cafe in Makati.
MPBL Founder and Chairman Manny Pacquiao attended the event.
The boxing legend exhorted the team owners, who were led by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada of the San Juan Knights, to help him eliminate the league of game-fixing by excluding players and coaches suspected of working with illegal gamblers.
While most of the 29 teams that competed last year, headed by back-to-back champion Pampanga and losing finalist Quezon Province, have signified their intention to join, others have requested more time to confirm their participation in the MPBL Seventh Season, which will end in December.
MPBL Chief Executive Officer Joe Ramos and Head of Operations Emmer Oreta were also present.
Ramos also said that it is very likely that the league will push through with a previously shelved plan to make the intra-division games a double round-robin phase.
This means teams within the same division could play each other twice this season while keeping inter-division battles as single round-robin matches.
Duremdes hinted at this possibility before last season but was scrapped due to the late season start, but Ramos said that because the upcoming season will start earlier, they might consider imposing it this time.
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