They finally got it right this time

The Philippine Collegiate Championships was formally announced and unveiled yesterday by its chairman Rey Gamboa. Whereas before there were 16 teams with the bulk of them coming from Metro Manila, this time around some 250 teams divvied up into nine regions areas (RAs):

RA-1 Dagupan, Pangasinan, and Baguio
RA-2 Pampanga and Bulacan
RA-3 Quezon and Bicol
RA-4 Iloilo and Bacolod
RA-5 Dumaguete and Bohol
RA-6 Tacloban, Ormoc, and Samar
RA-7 Cagayan De Oro, Iligan, Misamis Oriental, and Caraga
RA-8 Davao, Socsargen, and Maguindanao
RA-9 Misamis Occidental and Zamboanga

The top placers in the regionals along with Metro Manila various collegiate champions will then be scattered in four zonal competitions.

Group 1: the champions of UAAP, CUSA, and NAASCU, the runer-up of NCRAA, and four zonal representatives.

Group 2: the champions of NCAA, CESAFI, NCRAA, UCAA, the UAAP runner-up, and the other four zonal representatives.

The Sweet Sixteen all the way to the Final Four and the Championship will be held from November 23-December 7.

The winner will receive half-a-million in terms of athletic equipment and scholarship cash and represent the country in the next Universiade Games (I think the next one's in Belgrade).

The runner-up will get P200K, the third place team P100K, and the fourth-placer P50K .

Exclusive interview with Rey Gamboa and Joe Lipa (who is in Bicol right now) coming up.