Gators to Play in 2026 Players Era Men's Championship

While the Gators will not be competing in this year’s Players Era tournament, most of the 2025 participants will be involved in it next year. This list of schools includes Rutgers, Tennessee, Creighton, Baylor, Kansas, Notre Dame, St. John’s, Iowa State, Houston, Syracuse, Auburn, Oregon, Gonzaga, Alabama, Michigan, San Diego State, UNLV and St. Joseph's. 

This event will take place in November the week of Thanksgiving. The games will be held at several locations in Las Vegas and will be aired by TNT Sports on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max. 

There was a ton of excitement from Players Era CEO Seth Berger to add the Gators into the mix, highlighting the fact that they are the defending national champions. 

“The University of Florida is the current standard bearer of excellence in NCAA men’s basketball, and there is no higher peak than being able to add the defending national champions to the Players Era Men’s Championship field,” said Berger.

Berger also added that Golden is one of the best coaches in the game right now and thanked him for the support of the Players Era Tournament. 

“Coach Golden has quickly established himself as one of the best coaches in the game, and we thank him for his support of our event and can’t wait to see them match up with other premier programs in 2026.”

When the Gators are involved in the tournament, there will likely be some roster turnover. Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Xaivian Lee and Boogie Fland all have NBA aspirations and if all goes to plan this year, some of these names could be moving onto the next level. 

Three of them are already on NBA draft scouts' radars. Haugh, Fland and Condon were all included on way-too-early 2026 NBA draft big boards. 

Coincidentally, the Gators kick their title defense off in Las Vegas. They will be taking on the Arizona Wildcats on Nov. 3 in the Hall of Fame Series.