PBA returns to old format

MANILA, Philippines - Newly appointed PBA commissioner Chito Salud expects quality games throughout the coming season as non-bearing matches are likely to be eliminated on the league’s return to the old three-conference format.

“The stats show the gates suffer in a long elimination round. In a long elims, there are non-bearing games that are not attractive to the fans. We’ll try to remove that,” Salud told The STAR.

The PBA addressed that concern in mounting the league calendar for the 2010-11 season, which fires off next month.

The league reverts to its tried and tested three-conference format featuring one all-Filipino tourney and two import-reinforced conferences.

The 36th PBA season starts with a shortened Philippine Cup where the 10 teams play only 14 games each in the eliminations, then the top eight advance to the playoffs.

The elims will be inter-intra where the 10 teams are divided into two groups. Group-mates meet each other once and play the teams in the other group twice.

The bottom two after the preliminary round are automatically out, leaving eight teams to battle it out in the playoffs.

The top two carry a twice-to-beat advantage over the No. 7 and No. 8 teams in the quarterfinals. The other pairings – No. 3 versus No. 6 and No. 4 versus No. 5 – figure in a best-of-three series. The semis and the finals will be best-of-seven showdowns.

The two import-laden tourneys carry different formats.

Meanwhile, San Miguel Beer and B-MEG Derby Ace finally completed a trade transaction yesterday that sent Jonas Villanueva to the Llamados in exchange for Paul Artadi.

The sister ball clubs struck the deal with Air21 serving as conduit. The Express acquired Derby Ace’s 2014 first round pick in exchange for their 2013 second round pick.

At the same time, Air21 and Ginebra formalized their own deal that brought Billy Mamaril back to the Kings in exchange for a future pick.

In the second conference, the 10 teams figure in a single round robin affair in the elims with only six teams advancing to the playoffs.

The top two gain automatic semifinals entry with the next four settling for spots in two best-of-five quarterfinals matchups.

The third conference will have a different post-elims play format. After the one round robin elims, six teams advance to the next phase where they play another round, carrying over their elims win-loss records. A team which wins four of five games in the second round (regardless of their overall record) gets automatic playoff crack at a finals berth.

The first reinforced tourney will feature imports with the same height limitation. The other import-laden conference will adopt a height limitation handicapping system based on the performances of the teams in the first two conferences.

“I foresee a slam-bang affair from the elims to the finals with these formats,” said Salud.

“We’ll really try to meet the expectation of our fans in terms of quality of the games. In terms of maximizing the potential of the players, we’ll allow them to play their game,” said Salud.