There’s a new player in the game of early-season college basketball events, and it’s disrupted typical Thanksgiving week highlights like the Maui Invitational and Battle 4 Atlantis. While those tournaments are still taking place, the best field is now at the Players Era Festival 2025, an event that puts cash in the NIL wallets of its participants and offers resume-boosting opportunities months before Selection Sunday.
The Players Era Festival debuted last season as an eight-team tournament that featured an epic final when Oregon defeated Alabama. The million-dollar guarantees for each contestant seemed too good to be true to some, but each show ended up getting what they were promised. The Players Era Festival has now expanded to 18 men’s teams and also includes four women’s teams for the first time. It is not a traditional group, but instead divides the men’s teams into two groups of nine before expanding to 32 teams next year.
Monday, November 24 and Tuesday, November 25 will be loaded with big men’s college basketball matchups from noon to after midnight. The best finisher in each group will meet on Wednesday for the championship match. Here’s a look at the upcoming games:
The winner of the groups before the championship game will be determined by overall record, and also includes third-place matchups and all other consolidation games. The teams with the worst results will conclude the tournament on Thursday. This is what the tiebreaker order looks like:
We will update the Wednesday and Thursday schedule once it is announced. Here is the Players Era Festival 2025 schedule for now.
Player Era Festival Money
Competing in the Players Era Festival guarantees at least $1 million in each team’s NIL funds. There is another million dollars at stake depending on the teams’ performance.
Men’s Player Era Schedule
Additional men’s matchups will air on Nov. 26 and 27 based on the first two days of competition.