Teams won’t be able to sign rookie players easily.
Starting next year, the PVL will implement a rookie draft system to level the playing field.
League President Ricky Palou confirmed the development to Radyo5’s Power and Play hosted by former PBA commissioner Noli Eala.
"We're definitely going to have a draft system next year. So that the lowest rank teams will be able to get the better players that are coming into the league,” Palou said.
This will be the first time the PVL will implement the draft rule after it transitioned to a professional league in 2017.
Palou wants to balance things out for small market teams.
"For player movements, we’re saying that if you draft a player, you’ve got to keep this player at least for two years,” he said.
"We don’t want teams drafting players and just letting them off or trading them off to another team that’s willing to pay. We want to try and maintain the balance of the [competitiveness].”
The PVL's top honcho did not give details about the rookie draft and the process behind awarding the top pick. Palou is confident though that this move will make the volleyball league more competitive.
"As the years go by we see all the teams improving, up their playing level, and be competitive against each other. These are the things we’re looking at right now.”
This season alone saw what could be the best batch of rookies coming out of college.
The Chery Tiggo Crossovers and F2 Logistics Cargo Movers were the clear winners in this years' rookie harvest after picking up the best fresh talents which include Eya Laure, Jen Nierva, and Jolina dela Cruz.
Next year, it’s expected that no team can freely sign players they want.