"Final Four" is now a registered trademark exclusive to the American NCAA and no other organizing body within the U.S. can use that name in referring to their tournaments.
The tournament is now conducted in three stages with the institution of the Final Four playoffs: On the first year of the implementation of the Final Four playoffs in men's basketball, the University of Santo Tomas swept the elimination round, and following the then existing rules, the Glowing Goldies were awarded the championship outright.
After that season, the UAAP revised the rule so that the team that sweeps the regular stage will instead advance to the best-of-3 Finals automatically.
The Red Warriors became rusty, so to speak, causing them to lose the championship series 2–0 against La Salle (their last elimination round opponent).
As a result, the Policy Board formulated the "bonus rule" in which the team that sweeps the elimination rounds will qualify for the Finals outright and will have a thrice-to-beat advantage.
In Season 72 (2009–10), the league introduced the "common sense" rule in determining seedings for the playoffs in case of ties.
Prior to Studio 23, the games were broadcast by Silverstar Sports on the state-controlled People's Television VHF channel 4.
Prior to 2001, the games were also aired live on DZSR Sports Radio 918-AM; after ABS-CBN's takeover of broadcast rights, its Manila FM station 101.9 For Life!
Starting the 2021-2022 season, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of ABS-CBN on free television since 2020, the UAAP has signed new broadcast rights with Cignal TV, resulting in the establishment of the UAAP Varsity Channel dedicated to live broadcasts and archived games of the league across selected events.
One Sports and TV5 have also signed in to televise the games live nationwide, with the latter catering to all post-season matches for both basketball and volleyball tournaments.