Players Era Festival Poses Huge NIL Opportunity for College Basketball

This Thanksgiving season, tournament-style basketball is taking a new form for Alabama basketball. Part of the elite "Feast Week," a new tournament will make its debut amongst the holiday game-play. This new tournament, The Players Era Festival, will be held in Las Vegas at MGM Grand Garden Arena, where teams will compete for a chance to secure certain NIL payouts. The winning team of this tournament will receive $9 million in NIL for the 2024 competition, and although pay-for-play style tournaments are against NCAA regulations, each participating team will receive $1 million in NIL payouts. This is possible through the teams' actions of "engaging in ancillary events separate and distinct from the team’s participation in the Festival games." Student-athletes coming out victorious will receive $50 million in NIL over the next three years. Starting Nov. 26, the teams making an appearance in Vegas include No. 8 Houston, No. 13 Creighton, No. 22 Texas A&M, San Diego State, Notre Dame, Oregon, and Rutgers. Mi