2024 Players Era Festival

2024 Players Era Festival

Season	2024–25
Teams	8
Finals site	MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise, Nevada
Champions	Oregon (1st title)
Runner-up	Alabama
MVP	TJ Bamba (Oregon)
Players Era Festival 2025 »

The 2024 Players Era Festival was an early-season men's college basketball tournament. It was first edition of the Players Era Festival and was played from November 26 to November 30, 2024. Oregon won the tournament.

Overview

The tournament was created to give each team at least $1 million toward each team's Name, Image 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]

Teams

Rankings from the AP poll

Team	Conference
San Diego State	Mountain West
No. 21 Creighton	Big East
Oregon	Big Ten
No. 20 Texas A&M	SEC
No. 6 Houston	Big 12
No. 9 Alabama	SEC
Rutgers	Big Ten
Notre Dame	ACC

Bracket

Power Division

Game 1 November 26 TBS/Max San Diego State 71 21 Creighton 53 Game 1 November 26 TBS/Max Oregon 80 20 Texas A&M 70

Game 2 November 27 Max Oregon 78 San Diego State 68 Game 2 November 27 Max 20 Texas A&M 77 21 Creighton 73

Impact Division

Game 1 November 26 TBS/Max 6 Houston 80 9 Alabama 85* Game 1 November 26 TBS/Max Rutgers 85* Notre Dame 84

Game 2 November 27 TBS/Max Rutgers 90 9 Alabama 95 Game 2 November 27 TBS/Max Notre Dame 54 6 Houston 65

Championship Day

^[4]

7th Place Game November 30 TruTV/Max 21 Creighton 80 Notre Dame 76 5th Place Game November 30 TruTV/Max 20 Texas A&M 81 Rutgers 77

3rd Place Game November 30 TNT/Max San Diego State 73* 6 Houston 70 Championship Game November 30 TNT/Max Oregon 83 9 Alabama 81

All-Tournament team

MVP in bold ^[5]

Player	Position	Team
TJ Bamba	Guard	Oregon
Dylan Harper	Guard	Rutgers
Wade Taylor IV	Guard	Texas A&M
Miles Byrd	Guard	San Diego State
Mark Sears	Guard	Alabama

Broadcasting

TNT Sports holds the exclusive rights to broadcast the 2024 Players Era Festival. Games aired across TNT, TBS, TruTV and Max. All games additionally streamed on Max, two games were exclusive to the streaming service. ^[6]

The broadcast teams were as follows:

1. Brian Anderson, Grant Hill, Allie LaForce
2. JB Long, Candace Parker, Lauren Jbara

References

1. "Players Era Festival Event Overview".
2. "NCAA Memo Fuels Questions About Big-Bucks NIL Hoops Event". August 21, 2024.
3. "Multimillion-Dollar NIL Hoops Tourney to Finalize Plans Soon".
4. "Players Era Festival: Schedule, teams, TV channels, streaming for the college basketball event". NCAA.com. NCAA. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
5. "Taylor Named to Players Era Festival All-Tournament Team". Texas A&M. December 1, 2024. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
6. "TNT Sports to Exclusively Televise 30+ Men's & Women's College Basketball Games During Thanksgiving Week (Nov. 26-30) Across TNT, TBS, truTV & Max". TNT Sports. November 20, 2024. Retrieved November 24, 2025.