Season 67 president Danny Jose of De La Salle said the league’s board has initially agreed on a 16 players, 16 to play to a team rule, but decided to postpone its enforcement for next season.
The rosters of the eight participating schools would undergo a final scrutiny next week, after which the league would release the final lineup for the season two weeks before the opening.
De La Salle, the season’s host, is also expected to impress with its opening ceremony program, which will again carry a futuristic theme. Jose kept the program details under wraps but hinted it would basically be a dazzling display of laser and lights, something which is beyond tradition in the league. An event management group, Livewire Productions, is handling the opening presentation.
The hour-long ceremony will usher in the season which will begin with seniors basketball matches between University of the Philippines and Adamson University at 2 p.m. and defending champion Far Eastern University and University of the East (UE) at 4 p.m. At 5 p.m., it will be the duel between the juniors teams of University of Santo Tomas and UE.
But expect the Big Dome to be as filled on July 11 as the country’s most celebrated and heated rivalry — between De La Salle and Ateneo — earnestly take center stage. The Green Archers and Blue Eagles clash at 4 p.m. in between the Adamson-National University juniors match at 11:30 a.m., the UST-NU seniors duel at 2 p.m. and the De La Salle-Zobel-UP Integrated School juniors tussle at 6.
In compliance with Quezon City ordinance, the UAAP will also subject the basketball players in the men, women and juniors divisions to mandatory drug tests.
A Quezon City ordinance obliges the basketball players, all of whom would see action at one time or another at the Big Dome, to undergo drug tests. This is because the city enforces the rule on events whereby organizers charge a fee for entry into the playing venues within Quezon City. The volleyball players will not undergo the same test because the UAAP will be opening the matches at the UP gym in Diliman free to the public.