The Philippine Collegiate Champions League (PCCL) is a national collegiate basketball championship league in the Philippines. Its tournament, known as the "National Collegiate Championship" (NCC) is sanctioned by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, the country's national basketball federation. The league's format varies every season with 250 teams coming from nine different regional areas nationwide. History It was originally established in 2002 as the Collegiate Champions League (CCL). Reynaldo Gamboa, former Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) chairman and team governor for the Shell Turbo Chargers was named as the chairman of the tournament, while former national coach Joe Lipa served as the tournament director and commissioner. In 2008, the national governing body of basketball in the Philippines, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) sanctioned the CCL and was renamed into the Philippine Collegiate Champions League in which the organizers of the old CCL were retained. Teams from the UAAP had dominated the tournament, winning ten (10) out of the twelve (12) championships contested, with the remainder being won by teams from the NCAA. UAAP and NCAA teams are given four, and the CESAFI one, outright slots in the round of 16 berths. No UAAP champion vs. NCAA champion meeting took place in the finals, although a finals between the UAAP champion and the NCAA runner-up was contested in 2003 (FEU vs. San Sebastian), 2011 (Ateneo vs. San Sebastian)and 2019 (Ateneo vs. San Beda), UAAP and CESAFI champions contested the finals in 2018, and both finalists in the UAAP contested the 2008 and 2012 championship while NCAA finalists would later contested in 2018. In 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014, the Finals were played in a best-of-3 series; the others were one-off games (2004-2008); no third-place game was held on the first two tournaments. The contest was not held in 2005. In 2011, the single round robin Final Four match-up was introduced with the team with the most wins will have a twice-to-beat incentive in the Finals. However, in 2012, it was changed to whichever team to first get two (2) wins will automatically advanced to the Finals with the Finals without any incentives and with the Finals being played in a best-of-three series. Due to time constraints, the championship of the 2015 tournament was cancelled. Instead, the winners of the semifinal round were declared as co-champions. There was no tournament held in 2016 due to the changes adopted in the