NIL-driven Las Vegas college basketball event with millions paid to schools is nearly finalized

A one-of-a-kind revolutionary regular-season men’s basketball event to be staged later this year in Las Vegas is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks, CBS Sports has learned. Its selling point is based on the major factor that has drastically altered college sports over the past three years: name, image and likeness compensation for players.

Games will be played in November under the umbrella of an event dubbed the “Players Era Festival,” which will also include live music and other attractions for fans amid the glitz of the Las Vegas Strip during Thanksgiving week. In a college sports first, the event will also include $1 million NIL payouts for eight participating schools. What’s more, players involved will have future earnings opportunities through long-term NIL contracts, sources told CBS Sports.

Alabama, Houston, Notre Dame, Oregon, Rutgers, San Diego State and Texas A&M are all on board, sources said. The eighth and final school for the 2024 event will emerge from a small group that is still being deliberated. The Players Era Festival is not being pitched as a one-year happening, either. Plans are to double the size of the field, sources told CBS Sports, with 16 teams as the target for 2025 and beyond. Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Michigan, Syracuse and Virginia have all engaged in discussions about potentially playing in 2025. If they opt in, they’d be joined by most (if not eventually all) of the schools playing in 2024, many of which have already signed up for a three-year agreement, according to sources.

Event organizers are in the final negotiating stages with MGM Resorts International to hold games at any or all of its three major venues: T-Mobile Arena, MGM Grand Garden Arena and Michelob ULTRA Arena. The tentative schedule is to play games on Nov. 26, 27 and 29, with Thanksgiving an off-day. The 2024 format(s) for the eight teams has not been decided. Organizers are still weighing whether to have a single eight-team tournament bracket or two separate four-team multi-team events (MTEs). 

The tournament would be unique in that the NIL collective of each participating school would be paid $1 million. Additional significant NIL opportunities (believed to be in the neighborhood of another $1 million) would be awarded exclusively to the winner or winners of the event, depending on the final bracket format(s). The money would then be distributed to athletes by the…