Every returning team is allocated to its previous division, with both Negros and Quezon being placed in the South Division. The Rizal Golden Coolers were realigned back to the North Division.
The Imus City Bandera changed its name to Imus SV Squad before the 2023 Preseason Invitational.
The Bacolod Bingo Plus changed its name to Bacolod City of Smilesbefore the start of the season. The team is alternatively known as the Bacolod Maskaras.
The Caloocan Excellence changed its name to Caloocan Batang Kankaloo before the start of the season.
The Laguna Heroes Krah Asia changed its name to Laguna Krah Asia before the start of the season.
The Makati × MNL Kingpin changed its name to Makati OKBet Kings before the start of the season.
The Mindoro Tams changed its name to Oriental Mindoro Disiplinados before the start of the season, then later changed to Mindoro Disiplinados in June 2023.
The Quezon City MG changed its name to Quezon City Gaz N Go before the start of the season, then later changed to Quezon City Toda Aksyon in June 2023.
The opening ceremony was held on March 11, 2023 at Quezon Convention Center in Lucena, Quezon. Rapper Andrew E. and singer Marcelito Pomoy were both among the performers to kick off the regular season. Like previous seasons, a muse contest followed wherein some teams took part in.
The first game was between the Rizal Golden Coolers and the Bataan Risers, while the first home game featured the two expansion teams this season, with the Quezon Huskers hosting the Negros Muscovados.
Format
The 29 teams play in a single round-robin format, playing one game against all other teams in the league for a total of 28 games. In each gameday, a series of games is played in a designated home arena, with the home team usually playing in the final game.
The top eight teams in each division will advance to a four-round, single-elimination playoffs, playing in best-of-three series in the first three rounds, and a best-of-five series in the National Finals, with homecourt advantage alternating between the higher seeds of each series in the first two rounds.
Postponed and cancelled games
The Bacoor City–Bataan and Quezon–Marikina games, originally scheduled for September 22, 2023 at Marikina Sports Center, were postponed due to health concerns brought by volcanic smog. Both were then postponed to October 3, 2023, while the venue remained unchanged.[5]
The Laguna–Manila game, also originally scheduled for September 22, 2023, was later cancelled due to it having no effect on playoff standings.[5]
Source: Standings Rules for classification: 1) Wins; 2a) If two teams are tied, head-to-head match-up; 2b) If three or more teams are tied, head-to-head point quotient; 3) overall point quotient; 4) coin toss. Notes:
^ abPasig wins tiebreaker over San Juan based on head-to-head victory.
^ abQuezon City wins tiebreaker over Valenzuela based on head-to-head victory.
Source: Standings Rules for classification: 1) Wins; 2a) If two teams are tied, head-to-head match-up; 2b) If three or more teams are tied, head-to-head point quotient; 3) overall point quotient; 4) coin toss. Notes:
^ abBacolod wins tiebreaker over Sarangani based on head-to-head victory.
Results
Each team plays every team once. Number of asterisks after each score denotes number of overtimes played.
Source: Standings Legend: Blue = left column team win; Red = top row team win. Matches with lighter background shading were decided after overtime. Notes:
^The Bataan–Laguna game was forfeited due to Laguna's late arrival. As per FIBA rules, Bataan won the game and was awarded a score of 20–0.
^The Laguna–Manila game, originally scheduled for September 22, 2023, was going to be postponed due to health concerns brought by volcanic smog. It was later cancelled due to it having no effect on playoff standings.
Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its division, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. Teams with homecourt advantage, the higher-seeded team, are shown in italics.
The 2023 MPBL All-Star Game, the league's fourth overall, took place on September 16, 2023 at the Bataan People's Center in Balanga, Bataan, the home arena of the Bataan Risers. The North Division finally won against the South Division after three seasons, with a score of 99–91, with All-Star MVP honors going to Justine Baltazar.
Sarangani won 134–123, putting an end to Nueva Ecija's 32-game regular season winning streak, which began at the start of the 2022 season. The 257 total points scored between the two teams is also the most such in a single game.[7]
August 2, 2023 – Poypoy Actub of the Imus SV Squad broke the single-game dunking record, with 7 dunks against the Bulacan Kuyas.[8]
This is the first season in which the league awarded the Player of the Week award during the playoffs, during which it is called the Playoffs Performer of the Week. It is only given out during the first two rounds of the playoffs.
August 8, 2023 – The Bataan–Laguna game was forfeited in Bataan's favor, marking the first time in league history that a game was forfeited in its entirety. (The Basilan–Davao Occidental playoff game in 2021 was classified as "defaulted".)[11]
September 17, 2023 – Over 30 MPBL players were drafted during the PBA Season 48 draft, a big increase from the seven drafted in Season 47. Nueva Ecija's Kemark Cariño was the first MPBL player and first local player drafted, picked 13th overall by the Terrafirma Dyip during the second round.[12]
Junior MPBL tournaments
The league's youth-oriented counterpart, the Junior MPBL, began its inaugural 2023 season on July 9, 2023 at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.[13] The following tournaments took place during the 2023 professional season.
This season marked the second year of Cignal TV's ongoing television broadcast rights with the league. Carrying over from the previous season, games were also broadcast on One PH and One Sports+, the latter was only used for the Invitational tournament. Since April 13, Media Pilipinas TV (MPTV) began broadcasting all games.
This season saw an expansion of the league's streaming portfolio. Cignal's Pilipinas Live began streaming games in June 2023, while Bola.TV began in August 2023. The league continued to broadcast its games on Facebook, YouTube, and Cignal Play.