On Tuesday, the Philippine Basketball Association announced the new format for the upcoming Governors' Cup for PBA Season 49.
Fresh off the weekend's exciting draft, the PBA generated even more buzz when they confirmed a departure from the usual competition -- solely for the first conference of the new season, for now.
Gone is the traditional single-round robin format in the elimination round, which has been in play since the PBA expanded to 12 teams, while the top two seeds will also subsequently no longer enjoy a twice-to-beat advantage in the first stage of the playoffs.
So how exactly will the Season 49 Governors' Cup function when it begins on Aug. 18?
How is it going to work?
Teams will be divided into two groups of six, where they'll face one another twice to make up the ten elimination games to be played.
The top four finishers of each group will advance to the crossover quarterfinals, slated to be a best-of-five series.
This is in stark contrast to the previous format, when the highest and lowest two seeds had a twice-to-beat advantange and twice-to-win disadvantage respectively, while the third to 6th teams faced off in best-of-three series.
The semifinals will also be stretched from best-of-five to best-of-seven.
The only similarity to the previous competition format? The finals will continue to be a best-of-seven affair to determine the champions for this conference.
For Group A, they will be led by the most-recent Philippine Cup winners Meralco Bolts and defending Governors' Cup champions TNT Tropang Giga. Magnolia Hotshots, NorthPort Batang Pier, Terrafirma Dyip and Converge FiberXers are joining them as well.
Meanwhile, juggernauts Barangay Ginebra and San Miguel Beermen will spearhead Group B. The four other teams part of the pool are Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, NLEX Road Warriors, Phoenix Fuel Masters and Blackwater Bossing.
Will this new ploy succeed?
It's pretty clear that the PBA is aiming to garner interest as they try to spice things up ahead of its 50th season. There is definitely an intent to bring back the league's glory days.
For basketball nerds, teams facing off twice in the elimination round should be intriguing, as they focus on adjustments to bounce back or fully get the number of teams. That could also be the case for the playoffs, with teams being able to key in on details and adjust their strategies with the series' duration being longer.
On paper, it is a win-win situation -- with more meaningful games, more fans could be drawn to watch.
However, the sample size of the games played could be an issue, whether it's enough to gauge the performance of each team.
The original 11-game single eliminations can certainly feel like a sprint; having one less assignment shouldn't help at all. It can lead to more scenarios of teams being bunched up and tied at the standings because of the small number of games.
In relation to that, an emphasis on how teams match up with their pool mates can factor in.
For example, if a particular team was traditionally able to exploit certain teams only for those opponents to be in the other bracket while, conversely, their kryptonite just happened to be the strength for at he majority in their group, then they would face a huge test to hurdle the group phase simply due to the luck of the draw.
Any further argument that they might have had what it takes to beat teams in the other group simply mecomes a moot point.
That hurts even more considering this is not an additive like the NBA In-Season Tournament. This is the actual path for a team to win a PBA championship.
It also does not help that, with teams no longer certain to meet at least once in the elimination round, there is a chance some highly-anticipated clashes might not even take place in the conference.
For example, the Manila Clasico. With Ginebra and Magnolia in different groups, fans will again rely on the luck of the draw if the two traditional rivals do eventually face off. Or a rematch between of last season's Philippine Cup finals between Meralco and SMB for that matter.
For now, it's best to be in wait-and-see mode.
Commend the PBA for trying to innovate the experience for the fans to bring out a better product. Only time will tell if these changes will further ignite the passion of Filipino hoops fans towards the PBA.