The Players Era Festival is an early-season college basketball tournament. The tournament takes place in Paradise, Nevada with the games being played inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena, during the week of the US holiday of Thanksgiving. A title sponsor has yet to be announced but the tournament is being created to give each team at least $1 million towards each team's Name, Imagine and Likeness (NIL).[1]
In August 2024, the NCAA sent out a memo reiterating that players could not be directly compensated for participating in an MTE, even if the money was routed through a collective. EverWonder claimed that players would participate in sponsorship opportunities on behalf of the event that would allow for NIL compensation, with this compensation being described in agreements between EverWonder and the schools' NIL collectives, but not in the agreements between EverWonder and the schools themselves.[2]
The following month, a financial representative for the event informed Sportico that an announcement would be made soon for the sponsor and TV partner. The publication questioned the event's prospective profitability, as other MTEs bring in between $1-3 million, far below the potential amount needed to make the event profitable.[3]
The tournament will play its inaugural tournament during the 2024–25 NCAA Division I men's basketball season with it being split into two four-team Multi-Team Events (MTE), each having a round-robin format with each team playing one game against the other three teams in their MTE.[4]
