The National Collegiate Athletic Association Basketball Tournament is held every first semester of the academic year (from June up to October).
Currently, the eight member schools field in their varsity teams in a double round eliminations, where the schools play each other twice. The four teams with the best records advance to the semifinals, dubbed by the press as the Final Four.
The two top teams have a twice to beat advantage. The lower ranked teams need to win twice against the higher ranked teams to advance to the best-of-3 Finals, where the first team to reach two wins becomes the NCAA basketball champion.
If any event a team finishes the elimination round undefeated, that team will advance outright to the Finals. The third and fourth seed will have a playoff game to determine the opponent of the second seed. The winner of the match between the second seed and third/fourth seed advances to the best of three finals to face the first seed.
NCAA Basketball Champions
Basketball, as the most popular sport in the Philippines, receives the most attention from the press and the sports-minded public. As a result, the NCAA Seniors Basketball championship is the most coveted title among the NCAA sports.
Colegio de San Juan de Letran won the Seniors Basketball title a record 15 times. Ateneo de Manila University (now with the University Athletics Association of the Philippines) is second with 14 titles.
There is a separate division for high school student-athletes, the Juniors division. The defunct Mapua High School has the most championships, with nineteen. San Beda High School is second, with seventeen titles.
Note: TBD stands for to be determined.
Number of Championships by School
| School | Juniors | Seniors | Total | Last Seniors Championship |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Beda | 17 | 11 | 28 | 1978-79 |
| Letran | 15 | 10 | 25 | 2003-04 |
| Mapua | 19 | 5 | 24 | 1991-92 |
| Ateneo* | 6 | 14 | 20 | 1976-77 |
| San Sebastian | 1 | 11 | 12 | 2002-03 |
| JRU | 7 | 4 | 11 | 1972-73 |
| La Salle* | 4 | 6 | 10 | 1974-75 |
| UP* | 4 | 3 | 7 | 1929-30 |
| UST* | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1930-31 |
| PCU | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2004-05 |
| Trinity* | 1 | 0 | 1 | never |
| St. Benilde | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2000-01 |
Note: Teams marked with an asterisk (*) have pulled out of the NCAA.
Facts and trivia
- Lim Eng Beng of the La Salle Green Archers currently holds the most points scored in an NCAA game. He scored 55 points in the 1974 season when he led the Green Archers to the championship. He scored an average of 32 points in that season.
- La Salle and Letran engaged themselves in a brawl during the 1979 Finals series. The Rizal Memorial Coliseum was wrecked apart was the two sides ripped the chairs apart and threw them as weapons. Letran won the series but La Salle bolted from the NCAA and joined the UAAP.
- Two years before, San Beda and Ateneo had their own melee also at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. Both Ateneo and San Beda bolted out of the NCAA. Ateneo went to the UAAP but San Beda returned to the NCAA shortly thereafter.
- The Mapua Cardinals got their monicker from Major League Baseball's franchise, the St. Louis Cardinals.
- The Jose Rizal University Heavy Bombers got their monicker after World War II when their campus was littered with Japanese vintage bombs.
- The Letran Knights got their monicker from their founder who was a Knight of Malta.
- Jose Rizal University has not won the seniors' basketball championship since 1972.
- San Beda College has not won the seniors basketball championship since 1978.
- San Sebastian College - Recoletos owns the longest championship run in the NCAA, with five straight championships, from 1993 to 1997.