Can UAAP Football be the next UAAP Volleyball?

One of the biggest recent phenomena in Philippine sports has been the explosion of Women's Volleyball. And the UAAP has played a big part of that.

Last season's UAAP Women's Volley final attracted Basketball-like crowds at the Mall of Asia, and it's not hard to see why. School pride combined with attractive young ladies in skimpy athletic outfits playing a fast-paced game, and you get a recipe for ratings success.

The UAAP seems to have the magic fairy dust when it comes to sports in the Philippines. It has an advantage that no other Pinoy sports league has.

PBA teams may change names based on corporate whims. The D-League sees to have new franchises every year. UFL teams could come and go. But UST will always be UST, DLSU will be DLSU decades from now, and Ateneo is never going to be anything else but Ateneo.

With every team in the UAAP, there is an unbroken line of history stretching back decades, and a potential fan base in the hundreds of thousands. Now it's time to sprinkle some of that magic dust on the Beautiful Game.

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How old is UAAP Football? My Dad played it in UST in the fifties. They were known as the Glowing Goldies then. Dad was a fullback, and in those days every team played with a 2-3-5 formation. Yes, you read that right, two defenders, three mids, and five forwards.

Somewhere in España is an old championship trophy with my DNA on it. (By the way, Dad says there were some years there were only three teams in UAAP Football back then. Of course growing up and listening to him regale us with exploits about his championship campaigns, this detail was left out.)

This year every UAAP school except Adamson is trotting out a Men's Senior Football squad. (NU returned last year.) The league will have a double-round-robin format and a Final Four series identical to its Basketball counterpart.

Best of all, ABS-CBN Sports, instead of just showing the Finals series, will put out a UAAP Seniors Men's Football game of the week live on Studio 23, with myself and Darren Hartmann on the call. The first game will be this Saturday at 3 pm, then going forwards, the GOTW will be on a Friday at the same time. All the matches in the first round will be held in FEU-FERN in Diliman, where the school has a lovely full-size (68m x 105m) artificial grass pitch.

The league then takes a Winter Break before Christmas, just like Germany's Bundesliga. Maybe it's just me, but I find this small detail ridiculously cool. It's good to see the Football season stretched out now. In previous years it was compressed into a six-week period, which was not ideal for the players.

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For sure the competition will be riveting. Defending champs Ateneo may be missing keeper Nick O'Donnell and Cebuano Val Calvo due to academic deficiencies, but with the swift Mikko Mabanag on the wing, they shouldn't be taken lightly.

Runner-ups UP want to give mentor Anto Gonzales a fourth title. Their hopes rest on Jinggoy Valmayor, the San Carlos City U23 Azkals striker who has been ravaging UAAP defenses for the last three years with his strength and poise in front of goal. The Maroon Booters recently finished runner-up to Ceres – La Salle in the Unigames in Bacolod. Another Maroon to watch out for: U19 NT midfielder Daniel Gadia.

Playing perhaps the most attractive Football in the league is FEU. Like UP, they have a U23 Azkal star in Paolo Bugas, a brainy, quick and shifty midfielder, who will partner with the outrageously talented Arnel Amita. Amita was part of the U19 national team that won a tournament in Australia. Up top is the league's leading scorer, Jhanjhan Melliza of La Paz, Iloilo. Watch out for their slick, cultured brand of pass-and-move Football, a concoction of coach Kim Chul-Su.

FEU lost Azkal centerback Amani Aguinaldo to UP, where he sits a year. In his place is Nigerian Joshua Mulero.

Melliza has scored in the UFL for Green Archers United Globe, while Amita and Arellano have UFL experience too with Loyola.

UST hasn't won a title since 2007, falling at the final three times since then. But coach Marjo Allado welcomes back Shirmar Felongco and defender Ronald Batisla-ong. Those Ilonggo veterans could make the Growling Tigers the dark horse of this campaign.

UE held up the table last season, done in by a season-ending injury to senior Fitch Arboleda. This year they hope to bounce back.

National University will be buoyed by an encouraging third-place finish in the Unigames and will look to make a splash this season. They play FEU in the televised opener on Saturday and feature striker Paolo Salenga as their talisman.

DLSU has not won a title since 1998, but coach Hans Smit is confident he just might break that drought this year. He will rely on Al and Sabin Bustamante from Dumaguete. Al is a striker while Sabin roams the midfield.

Can weekly televised matches help spur this league to new heights? I'm hoping so. My Dad has fond memories of playing UAAP Football in the fifties in front of thousands of cheering fans in Rizal Memorial stadium. The league deserves that kind of attention today.

UAAP TELEVISED GAMES LIVE ON STUDIO 23.

All games will kick off at 3 pm.

Saturday, November 23: FEU vs NU

Friday, November 29, DLSU vs UP

Friday, December 6, UE vs FEU

Friday, December 13, UST vs UE

Friday, December 20, DLSU vs FEU

Here is the full sched for the first round.

Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH