Starting next season, the UAAP will require the ‘one-and-done’ players to sit out a year for residency, the league announced Tuesday.
During the pre-Season 89 press conference Tuesday, UAAP Executive Director Rebo Saguisag said the league is ‘trying to address the one-and-done phenomenon’.
‘Any athlete that has graduated from any university, once they transfer, they’ll have to sit out one year. The rationale is the board wanted somehow for the student-athletes to inculcate the culture of their respective schools before they compete,’ Saguisag said.
In the past, one-and-done players who graduated from another college outside the UAAP could play immediately, as long as they were within the age of eligibility.
Among the recent one-and-done players in the UAAP were Quentin Millora-Brown, Kymani Ladi, Dom Escobar, Lian Ramiro, Luis Villegas and Chase Lane.
The new measure was legislated last year, and will be in effect in UAAP Season 90.
‘The [one-and-done athletes] should know what [UE’s] Igma Kadima means… or for FEU, what it means to be actually brave. So, they’ll sit out one year, get inculcated in the culture, and play next year.’
Season 89 will have an opening ceremony this Saturday, and the first basketball games will be on Sunday.