The Eagle was not always the King. Up to the 1970s, Ateneo had the most number of collegiate basketball championships in the NCAA. The Blue Eagles had fourteen championship titles when they left the NCAA in 1978. San Beda, their closest rival, was second with only ten championships at that time. When Ateneo transferred to the UAAP, it struggled to soar high as it did in the NCAA. It took the Blue Eagles eleven years to win a championship again. After this back-to-back (1987 and 1988) championship, Ateneo had to wait another fourteen years for their next championship which happened in 2002.