The Players Era Festival, a one-of-a-kind revolutionary regular-season men’s basketball event to be held in Las Vegas this November, was formally announced Wednesday. Its selling point is based on the major factor that has drastically altered college sports over the past three years: name, image and likeness compensation for players.
Alabama, Creighton, Houston, Notre Dame, Oregon, Rutgers, San Diego State and Texas A&M have all committed to play in the event, with seven of those eight schools signed on for the next three seasons, sources told CBS Sports. (Oregon previously committed to the 2025 Maui Invitational.) In a college sports first, the Players Era Festival will also include $1 million NIL payouts for all participating schools. Players will have future earnings opportunities through long-term NIL contracts, sources said. CBS Sports extensively reported on the details of the event in early May.
The Players Era Festival will be played as two four-team formats during the week of Thanksgiving. According to sources, brackets are planned as such: Alabama (SEC), Houston (Big 12), Notre Dame (ACC) and Rutgers (Big Ten) is one multi-team event; Creighton (Big East), Oregon (Big Ten), San Diego State (Mountain West) and Texas A&M (SEC) the other. Teams from the same conference cannot play each other in MTEs, per current NCAA rules.
All teams will be guaranteed to play three games. After two games in four-team bracket play, there will be standalone neutral-site games, including one championship game between the teams that went 2-0 in their respective brackets.
The opening matchups will be:
Houston vs. Alabama
Rutgers vs. Notre Dame
Creighton vs. Oregon
Texas A&M vs. SDSU
The Houston vs. Alabama tilt could potentially be a battle between top-five teams.
“This is an opportunity for us to play against some of the best teams in the country early in the season,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said…
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