How to solve the PBA's FIBA scheduling woes

The PBA now has a huge problem on scheduling concerns as long as Gilas Pilipinas is concerned. Any well-meaning coach will tell you that 2 months is the best amount of time a national team can use in training: these include actual training, tuneup games, tuneup tournaments and traveling to and from each venue.

However, the PBA, to maintain fiscal stability, reverted to the three conference format: more playoff games, higher attendance. However, this means the season has to be lengthened somewhat; this also means less them for the national team to train. So, what can the PBA do?

GMANews.com already has suggestions. Let's pitch in some more.

First, the PBA is constrained by the concept of "game days". There are two games per game day, and there are three game days in a week, plus an out-of-town game every Saturday. That means we'd have 7 games in 4 game days in a week.

Second, the TV coverage partner has the understanding that there are three game days in a week, plus the road game. No TV network is willing to air basketball 4 hours a day, 4 times a week, unless they'd be using two TV stations; hence the current TV5+AksyonTV set up we have now.

Third, the PBA has to make a sacrifice on ditching the 3rd conference this season. Or make it really short. Like 2 groups, 4 games per team, plus a 2-round playoffs. If they ditch/drastically shorten the conference, they can reset the 2014-15 season to start in the second week of October, a week after the Asiad.

So the PBA is constrained of having 7 games per week for 3-game days/week+1 road game setup, and 9 games per week for the 4 game days/week+1 road game setup. That will be our basis from here on out.  So one game day = 2 games. One week = 3 game days in the playoffs, and 3 game days+1 road game in the eliminations.

Now, the PBA can tailor made their conference formats. At this season, it seems the PBA would be using identical formats for all conferences, if they'd base the formats from the 2012-13 season, with these exceptions:

• Philippine Cup has 14 games/team in the eliminations; for the others, it's 9 games/team.
• Philippine Cup semifinals is a best of 7 series; for the others, it's best of 5.
• All finals are best-of-7, although the 2013 Commissioner's Cup was cut down to a best of 5 as an emergency measure; there's good reason it'll be back to a best of 7 for 2014 if they don't change it.

It's time for the PBA to introduce variety in each conference. Each conference should have a specific playoff format for each conference, not the same-type of format we have now. Different formats give variety, and can affect scheduling. So, taking a look at old PBA formats, and taking the cue that there won't be the wildcard style playoff formats since fans apparently didn't like them (instead favoring the best-of-x formats), here are some amendments that the PBA can use:

• Philippine Cup
• 14 games per team in the eliminations.
• Top 8 qualify to the quarterfinals; top two receive a semis bye.
• Best of 3 quarterfinals
• Best of 7 semifinals and Finals
• Commissioner's Cup
• 9 games per team in the eliminations.
• Top 8 qualify to the quarterfinals
• Top 2 have twice to beat advantage, Middle four in best of three quarterfinals
• Best of 5 semifinals
• Best of 7 Finals
• Governors' Cup
• 9 games per team in the eliminations.
• Top 6 qualify to the quarterfinals; top two receive a semis bye
• Best of 3 quarterfinals
• Best of 5 semifinals
• Best of 7 Finals

Twiddling with math, we'd get these stats, assuming there 7 games a week in the eliminations and 6 in the playoffs:

• Philippine Cup
• 10 weeks of elimination round
• Maximum of 6 games in the quarterfinals, or 5 game days.
• Maximum of 14 games in the semifinals or 7 game days.
• Maximum of 7 games in the Finals, or 7 game days.
• Maximum of 5.67 weeks for the playoffs
• Commissioner's Cup
• 6.43 weeks of elimination round
• Maximum of 10 games in the quarterfinals, or 5 game days.
• Maximum of 10 games in the semifinals or 5 game days.
• Maximum of 7 games in the Finals, or 7 game days.
• Maximum of 5.67 weeks for the playoffs
• Philippine Cup
• 6.43 weeks of elimination round
• Maximum of 6 games in the quarterfinals, or 3 game days.
• Maximum of 10 games in the semifinals or 5 game days.
• Maximum of 7 games in the Finals, or 7 game days.
• Maximum of 5 weeks for the playoffs
• Rest weeks in-between conferences: 4 (2 per in-between conferences)
• Total number of weeks: Maximum of 43.19 weeks.

Ideally, a season should start in the second week of October and end in early July. That's around 40 weeks. So our 43-week schedule won't cut it. So, let's adjust the import conferences where there would be 9 games per week, and have a one-week break in between conferences. This shortens the season to 38.33 weeks. If we're putting that into real calendars, that would be a season that starts in October 12, 2014 would end in late June to early July.

We can also apply these to the last two conferences this season: now I don't exactly know when the last two conferences start, but if we'd use the current format, the last two conferences will last 21.33 weeks, or about 5 months, excluding in-between conference breaks. If we shorten the QF to twice-to-beat for the top 4 in one conference, and top 6 in the best-of-3 quarterfinals for the other, we'd end up 20.33 weeks, or saving one week, assuming all series go the distance. Not very much at first glance but not all series do go the distance.

There are other ways of cramming games: the PBA can introduce gamedays where four or more games will be held throughout the country, with the provincial games airing first and the metro games airing on primetime, sorta what they liked on opening day, in reverse, this season. If they can do that many times (such as on the opening of each conference), it helps in reducing the number of game days.

Or if the PBA is hell-bent on having a third conference this year, they could make Gilas as an invited guest team, and the teams that will be loaning players will get additional imports, sorta what they did with Gilas during the 2011 Commissioner's Cup. Now that didn't work out for Alaska in 1998 but who knows this year.

It would certainly be unacceptable for the fans if the PBA would still hold the Governors Cup as usual, and there'd be only two weeks of preparation; that's stupid. There's a very high chance that the PBA would find a way around it, more so with the chairman coming from Meralco. I don't know how they can shorten the season: by my calculations, shortening the playoffs for any conference to the one used in the 2012 Commissioner's Cup will shorten the season by a minimum of 2 game days, assuming all playoff series go the distance.

Indeed, the way the Governors Cup will pan out, if held, will be crucial: if most of the playoffs series, more so the finals, end quickly, the more time would be allotted for the national team; see what happened in the 2013 Commissioner's Cup where Alaska swept Ginebra in 3 games? The series lasted 3 game days or a week: if it went the full 7-game distance, it would end in 2.33 weeks.

What if there'd be two conferences? Let's say there'd be a 90-game elimination round, a quarterfinals that lasts a maximum of ten games for all participants, and a seven game series in the semifinals and finals, we'd end up at 39.52 weeks. Quite shorter than my original suggestion above, but here's the kicker: the maximum number of playoff games would only be around 38 (or ~22.5 game days); the three conference format can reach up to 50 playoff games (or ~28.5 game days), possibly even more. Can the PBA lose those ~6 game days? It's like an entire Finals series. The PBA can earn more by having a single game per game day, but I honestly don't know how that experiment turned out; the length in weeks would still be the same, though.

But wait, there's more: FIBA's changing their World Cup qualifying system, so the 2016 Olympics would be last of its kind. So the PBA could make way for these schedules for next year, and for the 2015-16 season if the country qualifies for the Olympics. After that, the PBA would have to deal with in-season qualifying games.

So the easy way out for the PBA is cancel the Governors Cup for this year, start early next year, and cram the games into as many game days as possible, and hope that the Governors Cup next year results in series sweeps. And hope any TV partner is amenable to that.