{"id":404306,"date":"2025-11-25T20:00:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T20:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/404306\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T20:00:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T20:00:19","slug":"a-college-basketball-tournament-in-vegas-pays-players-and-shakes-up-the-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/404306\/","title":{"rendered":"A college basketball tournament in Vegas pays players, and shakes up the sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 Back in 1987, Bruce Pearl thought he\u2019d found basketball paradise: Maui.<\/p>\n

The Maui Invitational, specifically \u2014 college basketball\u2019s premier early-season tournament for the better part of 40 years. Pearl, an Iowa assistant then, loved the waves, the sand, the small community center gym. But most of all, he loved that every watchful eye across the college basketball universe was, for one week, trained on the same tiny tournament in the middle of the Pacific.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an old-school guy, so goodness gracious, I walk into Lahaina (Civic Center) and I get emotional,\u201d said Pearl, the recently retired Auburn coach who won the event with the Tigers last November. \u201cYou dream that one day, as a head coach, you might coach in Maui.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, at least you used to.<\/p>\n

But today, Maui and other long-established multi-team events like the Battle 4 Atlantis are facing an existential threat. This week\u2019s Players Era Festival in Las Vegas pays players directly \u2014 at least $1 million combined per team in name, image and likeness deals. The tournament doesn\u2019t disclose how player payouts are determined, but they will go through NIL Go, the compliance clearinghouse<\/a> launched by the College Sports Commission and managed by the accounting firm Deloitte.<\/p>\n

In just its second season, the tournament has made schools question the alternative of spending hundreds of thousands on Thanksgiving week trips to faraway islands, especially in an era dominated by dollars and sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids are like professional athletes,\u201d said Lea Miller-Tooley, the CEO of Complete Sports Management and a longtime event organizer who also founded Battle 4 Atlantis in 2011. \u201cThey don\u2019t care about swimming with dolphins. They wanna get paid.\u201d<\/p>\n

After its debut with eight teams went off without a hitch last season, Players Era has expanded to 18 teams \u2014 eight of which are currently ranked in the Top 25 \u2014 before swelling to 32 next season. With over $50 million in payouts already secured over the next two seasons, according to founder Seth Berger, teams are understandably lining up for a piece of the pie.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s no wonder, then, that this season\u2019s field is a veritable Sweet 16 preview. All of No. 3 Houston, No. 7 Michigan, No. 8 Alabama, No. 12 Gonzaga, No. 14 St. John\u2019s, No. 15 Iowa State, No. 17 Tennessee, No. 21 Auburn and recently ranked Kansas have descended on Sin City this week, along with hundreds of credentialed media members and NBA scouts.<\/p>\n

Maui, by comparison, has one Top 25 team in No. 23 NC State. The Battle 4 Atlantis has only No. 24 Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Bruce Pearl and the Auburn Tigers won the Maui Invitational last season. (Marco Garcia \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Players Era is financially backed by RedBird IMI: a joint media venture between the private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners and the Abu Dhabi-based International Media Investments. Last season, for all the attention on the actual games in Las Vegas, there was arguably more focus on Dec. 5, the day payments were supposed to hit.<\/p>\n

But once they did, apprehension about Players Era seeming too-good-to-be-true dissipated. While skepticism may remain in some corners, on Monday, the Big 12 and Players Era announced a five-year equity deal, guaranteeing the Big 12 eight slots each season, with Players Era paying players on those teams over $50 million through 2030.<\/p>\n

Signs promoting the event, which also includes a four-team women\u2019s tournament, are everywhere along the Strip, from cardstock cutouts littered throughout casinos to flashing electronic billboards on the side of the MGM Grand, which houses one of the two gyms being used this week. Gamblers wearing Iowa State and Gonzaga jerseys are easy to spot despite the event being sandwiched between an F1 race and Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

Some in college basketball say the three biggest events this season are March Madness, conference tournaments \u2026 and Players Era.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis,\u201d said Berger, who also founded basketball apparel company AND1 in the \u201990s, \u201cwill be the best college basketball tournament ever outside of March.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what other tournaments can do to survive, Kansas coach Bill Self didn\u2019t mince words.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that it would be up to the organizers, and the event promoters, to see if they can do whatever the Players Era is doing,\u201d Self said. \u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re in danger \u2014 unless maybe they don\u2019t make some adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, Berger set out to create a tournament that rewarded players directly. He knew he needed a substantial program to be first on board, especially if he was going to attract the level of competition necessary to upset long-established nonconference scheduling norms. After a few early conversations, Houston was interested \u2014 but wanted more information about the financial piece. How, after all, was Players Era actually going to come up with all this money?<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you\u2019re doing something new, people should be skeptical,\u201d Berger said. \u201cIn fairness to them, I would\u2019ve been skeptical myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Berger set up a meeting with Houston coach Kelvin Sampson and Berger\u2019s co-founder Ian Orefice, the founder of production company EverWonder Studio with ties to RedBird IMI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got comfortable, ultimately, that the million dollars were going to be there,\u201d Berger said, \u201cand honestly, once coach Sampson said yes, the other dominoes fell very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six of the other seven teams from last season\u2019s inaugural event, including Alabama and San Diego State, are back this year. But it\u2019s the heft of the programs Berger added for Year Two \u2014 including Kansas, Gonzaga, Tennessee and St. John\u2019s \u2014 that has shot Players Era straight into a different stratosphere. Berger said that 26 of next season\u2019s 32 teams have already signed on, with Louisville, Florida and Virginia as some of the latest brand-name additions.<\/p>\n

Berger said next season\u2019s 32-team field \u2014 the format he anticipates for Players Era for the foreseeable future \u2014 will feature eight four-team pools that compete over the two or so weeks leading up to Thanksgiving week, also known as Feast Week. Then, the best of each pool will fly to Vegas for an eight-team bracket to crown an ultimate champion. That means even the teams that don\u2019t qualify for the Las Vegas portion still receive three high-quality nonconference games to bolster their NCAA Tournament resumes. Under the new format, not every team will receive $1 million, according to CBS Sports.<\/p>\n

The flashy fields and eye-popping numbers around Players Era have only made the event\u2019s contrast to legacy tournaments that much more pronounced.<\/p>\n

Coaches and staffers The Athletic polled who have previously participated in Maui and Atlantis say that with charter flights, hotels, meals and other fees \u2014 few, if any, of which are covered by event organizers \u2014 it can cost a program anywhere from $250,000 to $750,000 to attend. One school, which has participated in both events in years past, said it has cost as much as a million dollars to play in those events, given growing travel parties.<\/p>\n

Other tournaments often book fields well in advance, making it harder to determine the quality of games for teams looking to build NCAA Tournament resumes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just not as sensible, as special as those tournaments have been,\u201d said one high-major staffer who deals with scheduling, granted anonymity in exchange for his candor.<\/p>\n

Players Era does not directly compensate schools, but in the revenue sharing era, that $1 million payout \u2014 or more, if a team advances to the championship or third-place game \u2014 still dramatically aids schools\u2019 bottom lines.<\/p>\n

Tom Valdiserri, the executive vice president and managing director of KemperSports, the organizing body that hosts both the Maui Invitational and Battle 4 Atlantis, said there\u2019s nothing off the table as far as altering those events. That includes possible format changes, and even adjusting the events\u2019 compensation models.<\/p>\n

Valdiserri also noted that Maui celebrated its 40-year anniversary event last season<\/a> \u2014 a tremendous success, especially in the tournament\u2019s return to Maui after devastating wildfires \u2014 and that there\u2019s \u201cno end in sight\u201d to its television agreement with ESPN.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to speculate on any other event, but we\u2019ve just seen in history that they come and go,\u201d Valdiserri said, \u201cand there\u2019s been a couple that have stood the test of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Players Era may be the biggest single threat to tournaments like Maui and Atlantis, but it\u2019s far from the only one, including one from the NCAA itself.<\/p>\n

In June, the NCAA passed legislation that changed a longtime scheduling rule. Under the previous setup, schools were permitted to play the maximum 31 games only if they participated in a multi-team event; otherwise, their regular-season schedules were capped at 31 games. But as of the 2026-27 season, all schools will be permitted to schedule 32 games, cutting out much of the necessity of multi-team events.<\/p>\n

After over a decade of organizing the Battle 4 Atlantis, Miller-Tooley left this offseason to focus on what she sees becoming the new \u201cfocal point\u201d of nonconference scheduling: marquee neutral-site games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re getting the compensation. They can control their schedule. And they know exactly who they\u2019re going to play,\u201d Miller-Tooley said, adding that some of the neutral-site contests she\u2019s organizing have come together in as little as a week.<\/p>\n

The goal for any neutral-site nonconference game is to come close to a home gate, which ranges anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million on average for Top 25 teams, according to U.S. Department of Education data and multiple program staffers. But depending on a school\u2019s brand \u2014 and venue, and location \u2014 it\u2019s possible certain neutral-site games become more profitable than home games.<\/p>\n

This week alone, Duke plays Arkansas in Chicago, North Carolina plays Michigan State in Fort Myers, Fla., and UConn plays Illinois in Madison Square Garden in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have as many alums in Atlanta as we do in Auburn \u2014 in fact more,\u201d said Pearl, who is calling Players Era as an analyst on TNT. \u201cWe go to Birmingham and we have more alums there. So I love the regional neutral sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Therein lies another hidden detriment, according to multiple high-major staffers and coaches, of going to an event like Maui or Atlantis. Not only are teams spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to go play these games, but in doing so, there\u2019s also the opportunity cost of not playing home games or lucrative neutral-site deals. Hypothetically, say a school pays $500,000 to go to the Maui Invitational for a week. That isn\u2019t its only cost; it\u2019s also the additional $1 million it could\u2019ve earned by playing two home games, or the additional $1.5 million it could\u2019ve earned by playing a standalone neutral site.<\/p>\n

That only exacerbates the financial strain on athletic departments that, more than ever, are desperate for cash to keep up with their rivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollege sports has never been more of an arms race,\u201d Miller-Tooley said. \u201cTeams want to play neutral-site games that they\u2019re going to get paid (for).\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked this week about Houston\u2019s participation, Sampson was abundantly clear about why the Cougars are in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had no choice. Have you seen our budget? Have you seen our fundraising? We have to raise our money,\u201d Sampson said. \u201cI had to get our administration to understand how important it was to follow through on the decision I made to be in this tournament. Sign the forms. Sign them today. \u2018Well, we\u2019re not quite sure \u2026\u2019 It doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berger said Players Era is profitable this year \u2014 through a combination of ticket sales, sponsorships and television partnerships \u2014 with room for growth in coming seasons. While some skepticism may linger about the tournament long term, the more teams join, and the more it becomes a staple of the November nonconference slate, the more optimistic Berger is about the future.<\/p>\n

\u201c(There\u2019s a) number of teams we have who have said to us, we\u2019re building our Quad-1 schedule moving forward around Players Era,\u201d Berger said, \u201cas opposed to fitting in Players Era.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for what becomes of Maui? Of Atlantis? Of the non-paying multi-team event structure in general, one that ruled college basketball\u2019s November slate until last season?<\/p>\n

Nobody knows \u2014 because nobody ever saw the current landscape coming, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart actually does break for Maui. After the fires, Maui economically needed that event,\u201d Pearl said. \u201cBut no, I see the future of the Maui Invitational really changing. \u2026 The best teams are going to find tournaments to play against the other best teams.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Back in 1987, Bruce Pearl thought he\u2019d found basketball paradise: Maui. The Maui Invitational, specifically…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":404307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8802,8804,3912,1384,2500,8798,8797,3914,1385,7800,13874,9445,3916,13875,62,222,35602,1383,67,132,116649,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-404306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alabama-crimson-tide","9":"tag-auburn-tigers","10":"tag-creighton-bluejays","11":"tag-gonzaga-bulldogs","12":"tag-houston-cougars","13":"tag-iowa-state-cyclones","14":"tag-kansas-jayhawks","15":"tag-maryland-terrapins","16":"tag-mens-college-basketball","17":"tag-michigan-wolverines","18":"tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish","19":"tag-oregon-ducks","20":"tag-rutgers-scarlet-knights","21":"tag-san-diego-state-aztecs","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-sports-business","24":"tag-syracuse-orange","25":"tag-tennessee-volunteers","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-unlv-runnin-rebels","29":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115612118993400734","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}