PHILIPPINE Christian University (PCU) will participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) this coming season after all.

However, PCU will lose its membership in the league in the 2009-2010 season.

The NCAA announced in a statement that PCU’s seniors team in all sports will play for the coming 84th season. The statement also said PCU is “voluntarily taking an indefinite leave of absence starting the 85th season as per agreement with the NCAA policy board.”

NCAA spokesman Henry Atayde of College of Saint Benilde, however, said the school will have to reapply for membership in the league. The league made the decision during a meeting of the NCAA policy board Tuesday at the Casa Español in Manila.

“They will have to go through the process of applying again,” said Atayde in a phone interview.

“It was a mutual agreement between the league and the school,” he added.

Atayde also said PCU’s juniors’ teams in all sports are still suspended after the school was found guilty of having forged the identification papers of some of its boys’ basketball players. That led to a suspension of the school in all sports in Season 83.

Earlier reports said PCU will be suspended for the coming season and will be under probation for one year afterward. But PCU president Dr. Oscar Suarez had asked the policy board for “mercy and understanding.” He also said that PCU will be given back a seat in the Management Committee (Mancom) and the policy board.

PCU athletic director Arturo Alombro expressed gratitude that the NCAA has allowed them to participate in the league again.

“We are thankful that the NCAA has given us a chance to return,” said Alombro, who will sit for PCU in the Mancom.

“We will try our best to comply with the requirements of the league,” said Alombro.

Alombro said the Dolphins intend to compete respectably this coming season. “The players have been preparing because they are hoping that they could play this season,” he said.

A Euro 2008 Preview: Crowning the king of the Alps

Who are the odds-on favorites to win Euro 2008?

There’s the reigning World Cup champion Italy and the three other semifinalists Germany, Portugal and France. And all four teams find themselves in form and re-loaded for football’s second most prestigious competition.

One win away

SAN ANTONIO—The events of Tuesday night weren’t as indelible as the renowned “0.4” shot, but Derek Fisher was in the thick of another improbable victory against San Antonio.

MORE than three out of four people think Manny Pacquiao will win by knockout over David Diaz.

In a poll conducted on the boxer’s web site mannypacquiao.ph, nearly half of the respondents—46.5 percent, to be exact—said they believe Pacquiao will floor Diaz in the late rounds. Some 30 percent said Pacquiao will do it in the early stages.

SENATORS agreed to craft remedial legislation that would clarify the powers of the Games and Amusement Board (GAB) amid complaints against the GAB’s “undue interference” in the functions of duly recognized National Sports Associations (NSAs), such as the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP).

PHILIPPINE Christian University (PCU) will participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) this coming season after all.

SEVENTEEN gold medals are up for grabs as competition starts full throttle in the opening day of the 2008 Milo National Open track and field championships Thursday at the Rizal Coliseum track oval.

And then there were four.

From a survival cast consisting of the Lakers, the Nuggets, the Jazz, the Rockets, the Spurs, the Suns, the Hornets and the Mavs in the West; and the Celtics, the Hawks, the Cavaliers, the Wizards, the Magic, the Raptors, the Pistons and the Sixers in the East, the semifinal showdown has been limited to four: the Lakers and the Spurs in the West, the Celtics and the Pistons in the East.

BATANGAS CITY—Harbour Center cemented its status as today’s most successful franchise in the Philippine Basketball League (PBL).