UAAP Final Four


The UAAP Final Four refers to the postseasons of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines tournaments. The term "final four" came from the National Collegiate Athletic Association of the United States' men's Division I basketball tournament which is colloquially called as the "final four".

History

The Final Four in which the four teams with the best records qualify for the postseason playoff games was instituted in Season 56. Previously the postseason was a championship series between the top two teams, with the #1 seeded team holding the twice to beat advantage, i.e., they have to win only once to clinch the championship. The #2 team has to win twice.
The tournament is now conducted in three stages with the institution of the Final Four playoffs:
On the first year of the implementation of the Final Four playoffs, the University of Santo Tomas swept the elimination round, and following the then existing rules, the Glowing Goldies were awarded the championship outright. After that season, the UAAP revised the rule so that the team that sweeps the elimination round will instead advance to the best-of-3 Finals automatically. While the #2 team will have the twice to beat advantage in the semifinals where it awaits the winner of the game between the #3 and #4 teams.
The revised postseason format was implemented in Season 57 but it was not until Season 70 that a team swept the elimination rounds. The University of the East was the first to accomplish this feat under the new format, causing the sweep clause to be used. UE thus automatically advanced to the Finals but this reward became a bane as the Red Warriors had to wait for 21 days before the championship series can be started due to several factors, namely, the unavailability of the playing venue, two tie-breaker games and two semifinal games. The Red Warriors became rusty, so to speak, causing them to lose the championship series 2-0 against La Salle. As a result, the Policy Board formulated the "bonus rule" in which the team that sweeps the elimination rounds will qualify for the Finals outright and will have a thrice-to-beat advantage. This means that the number 1 seeded team will only need to win twice; the other finalist needs to win thrice, thus giving the sweeper a 1–0 lead in a virtual best-of-five.
Ties among the semifinalists were broken by an extra game, irrespective of the seedings. Ergo, in a tie for the 2nd seed, the game that will be used to break the tie serves as a de facto game one of a best-of-three series. If two teams are tied for the fourth seed, the game that will be used to break the tie serves as a knockout game between the two. If three or more teams are tied, the team with the best points difference gets a bye to the final tie-breaker game against the winner/s of the teams with the lower points difference. In Season 72, the league introduced the "common sense" rule in determining seedings for the playoffs in case of ties. This means not all ties in the semifinals will be broken by a one-game playoff. Only ties for second and fourth are broken by an extra game. Ties for first and third are broken by the points difference of the tied teams. Starting Season 79, however, the thrice-to-beat advantage for the top-seeded team has been removed, but the stepladder semifinals format and the automatic Finals slot incentive for the top-seeded team remains.

Format

Television and radio

The Final Four is heavily covered by the media. With the UAAP as one of the leading collegiate leagues in the country, the Final Four games are broadcast live throughout the country.
Beginning year 2000, the UAAP Finals and the Final Four games, were broadcast by ABS-CBN's UHF channel Studio 23 nationwide and produced by ABS-CBN Sports. Prior to Studio 23, the games were broadcast by Silverstar Sports on the state-controlled People's Television VHF channel 4. Since July 2009, the UAAP is also aired in high definition through cable channel Balls, via their channel Balls HD. Upon signing a new contract at the conclusion of UAAP Season 72 in October 2009, the Finals will be aired through VHF television channel ABS-CBN 2, beginning in 2010 and renewed again in October 2013 at the conclusion of UAAP Season 76.
Prior to 2001, the games were also aired live on DZSR Sports Radio 918-AM; after ABS-CBN's takeover of broadcast rights, its Manila FM station 101.9 For Life! aired updates during and after the games, but not blow-by-blow coverages. In 2010, radio coverage of the games were aired on DZRJ-AM 810.

Statistics

Appearances

Notes:
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Win-loss statistics

Entire playoffs

Finals statistics

Note: FEU was awarded the 2004 championship title due to La Salle's fielding of ineligible players from 2003 to 2005 thus forfeiting their wins and revoking La Salle's final team standings from those seasons.
The most frequently played matchups are:
MatchupSemifinalsFinalsTotal
FEU vs. La Salle6511
Ateneo vs. La Salle5510
Ateneo vs. FEU639
La Salle vs. UST459
Ateneo vs. UST437
FEU vs. UE505
Ateneo vs. UE213
La Salle vs. UE213
FEU vs. UST213
UST vs. NU303
Ateneo vs. Adamson202
La Salle vs. Adamson202
UE vs. UST202
UP vs. UST202

Seeds

In the 26 tournaments the Final Four format has been applied, the higher seed has beaten the lower seeds in the semifinals due to their twice to beat advantage, for the most part:
  1. The #1 seed has beaten the #4 seed in 22 out of the 24 times.
  2. *The #1 seed has beaten the #4 seed 17 times on the first game.
  3. *The #1 seed has beaten the #4 seed 5 times on the second game.
  4. *The only times the #1 seed was beaten by the #4 seed were during the NU-UST matchup in Season 76, and the ADMU-NU matchup in Season 77.
  5. The #2 seed has beaten the #3 seed 17 out of 25 times.
  6. * The #2 seed has beaten the #3 seed 13 times on the first game.
  7. * The #2 seed has beaten the #3 seed 4 times on the second game.
  8. **Out of the 8 times the #2 seed was beaten, the #2 seed was UE thrice and Adamson twice.
  9. The #4 seed has beaten the #2 seed 1 out of 1 times.
  10. *The only time the #2 seed was beaten by the #4 seed was during the UST-UP matchup in Season 82 due to the stepladder format.
  11. The #3 seed has beaten the #4 seed 1 out of 2 times.
  12. * With UE sweeping the elimination round, there were two semifinal rounds for 2007.
  13. * With Ateneo sweeping the elimination round, there were two semifinal rounds for 2019.
  14. The #1 seed skipped the semifinals twice
A victory of the #3 seed in a series is considered a big upset considering that the #3 seed has to win twice, not to mention the perceived superiority of the #2 seed when compared to the #3 seed.
In the finals, the advantage of the #1 seed isn't as pronounced since the competing teams have to win the same number of games:
  1. The #1 seed has beaten the #2 seed 10 of 15 times
  2. The #1 seed has beaten the #3 seed 5 of 8 times
  3. The #1 seed has beaten the #4 seed 1 of 1 times
  4. The #2 seed has beaten the #1 seed 5 of 15 times
  5. The #2 seed has beaten the #4 seed 1 of 2 times
  6. The #3 seed has beaten the #1 seed 3 of 8 times
  7. The #4 seed has beaten the #2 seed 1 of 2 times
  8. The #1 seed has won the championship 16 of 26 times

    Individual single-game records

Stats since the 2001 season.
StatisticNameTotalSchoolOpponentStage
Most pointsThirdy Ravena382018 Finals
Most reboundsRaymar Jose
232016 Semifinals
Most assistsMacky Escalona
Mike Cortez
Mike Cortez
Thirdy Ravena		9

2006 Semifinals
2002 Finals
2001 Semifinals
2018 Finals
Most stealsElmer Espiritu
Pocholo Villanueva		5

2008 Semifinals
2007 Finals
Most blocksNonoy Baclao72008 Finals
*game went into overtime.