The Players Era Festival is one of college basketball’s most exciting early-season tournaments. It is more than just wins and losses.
Set around the Thanksgiving week, it is a centerpiece event during one of the biggest and most significant stretches in the early college basketball calendar.
What Is the Players’ Era Festival?
Launched in 2024, Players Era Festival was created in part to support NIL collectives at participating schools. For many programs, especially those outside the highest-budget powerhouses, this festival offers serious financial upside. Each team is guaranteed a minimum of $1 million in NIL-related funding.
Beyond just cash, the Players Era Festival is reshaping how tournaments work. In 2025, the men’s field has expanded to 18 teams, a big leap from its eight-team debut. Houston, Alabama, Tennessee, Auburn, Kansas, Baylor, and Gonzaga are some of the key teams this year.
ESPN reports that, beginning next season and continuing through the 2029-2030 event, conference standings will determine the competing teams.
Women’s teams are also a new addition to the event this year, with Duke, South Carolina, Texas, and UCLA competing in a round-robin format.
Players Era Festival 2025: Schedule and Streaming
Hosted in Paradise, Nevada, the 2025 edition takes place across two big venues on the Las Vegas Strip: the MGM Grand Garden Arena and Michelob Ultra Arena.
Unlike the NCAA‘s traditional bracket-style tournaments, the event uses a group-play format. Each men’s team plays two games on Nov. 24 and Nov. 25.
After those opening matchups, teams are sorted for Nov. 26 and Nov. 27, from 1 p.m. to midnight EST, based on their record, point differential, and other performance metrics, to determine who plays for top spots and who advances to consolation games.
Tiebreakers will be determined by point differential, points scored, and points allowed.
The first and only round of the four-team women’s tournament, featuring three of the 2024 Women’s Final Four teams, will take place on Nov. 26. The championship game and third-place game are scheduled for Nov. 27, on Thanksgiving Day.
TNT Sports holds the exclusive broadcast rights, with games airing on TNT and truTV. For streaming, every game is available on HBO Max, making the event accessible even if you don’t have a cable subscription.
The Impact of Players Era Festival
One of the most talked-about features of the Players Era Festival is its financial structure. Organizers have reportedly committed north of $20 million in NIL-related payments and performance incentives.
That guaranteed $1 million per school itself is enough to make this event a must-play for many programs, especially those that want to compete for both money and exposure.
“They’re giving us $1 million,” Houston’s head coach, Kelvin Sampson, kept it straight while explaining his reason for returning to the tournament. “That’s why we’re there, and I would say that’s why all the teams are there.”
Sampson added that events like this save them from having to request funds externally: “There is a thing called donor fatigue.”
Organizers are already planning for growth. The Players Era Festival is expected to expand to 32 teams as soon as 2026, potentially utilizing a FIFA-style group-stage format and multiple host cities before culminating in a bracket final in Las Vegas.
If that happens, the Festival could become one of the biggest non-NCAA tournaments in college basketball, a genuine “November Madness.”
