Las Vegas ― The Players Era Festival is unlike any other early-season college basketball tournament.
And not just because of the tournament’s $1 million payout, with the potential to earn even more money, to the teams taking part in the event.
The Players Era Festival is not formatted in a standard bracket.
In its second year, the Players Era Festival features 18 teams playing in two different pods with the teams that wind up in Wednesday’s championship game determined by a process that in addition to win-loss records also includes point differential, points scored and possibly even their Associated Press poll ranking.
The tournament could also pit conference rivals against each other, although there are some safeguards against intra-conference matchups.
But with four teams from both the Big 12 and the Big Ten and three teams from the SEC, there might not be any way to avoid having Tennessee play Auburn, Iowa State face Kansas or Syracuse take on Notre Dame in the third round of games.
All 18 teams will play on Monday and Tuesday at either the Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Ultra Arena or the MGM Grand’s Garden Arena.
Fourteen teams will wrap up play on Wednesday, while the four bottom teams will be forced to spend an extra day in Vegas and play on Thanksgiving.
Here are the basics of the tournament’s format and scheduling criteria:
The pods
The 18-team field is split into two pods. Ten teams will play at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and the eight will play at the Michelob Ultra Arena.
Syracuse is in the MGM Grand pod along with Rutgers, Tennessee, Kansas, Notre Dame, Houston, Gonzaga, Alabama, UNLV and Maryland.
The teams in the Michelob Ultra Arena pod are Michigan, Creighton, Oregon, Baylor, St. John’s, Iowa State, Auburn and San Diego State.
The team that finishes in first place in each pod will play each other in the overall Players Era championship game and the team that finishes in second place in each pod will play in the third-place game. Both of those games will be played Wednesday.
The teams in these games will not be re-seeded to avoid conference conflicts or repeating regular season games (like Alabama vs. St. John’s or Houston vs. Auburn). That’s because additional money is at stake in the championship and third-place games.
The criteria
After all the games on Tuesday are finished, all 18 teams will be ranked 1-18.
Here is the criteria that will be used:
1 - Record
2 - Head-to-Head results
3 - Plus/Minus Tiebreaker (maximum of 20 points; so as not to encourage teams to run up the score)
4 - Total Points Scored
5 - Total Points Allowed
6 - AP ranking as of Monday, Nov. 24
Wednesday’s other games
The teams that finish ranked Nos. 5-14 after two rounds will also play on Wednesday.
There are some minor differences in how these matchups will be determined.
Games between teams from the same conference will be avoided. The tournament guarantees that.
The tournament will also attempt, but not guarantee, to avoid matchups between non-conference teams that play during the season. (Like Syracuse vs. Tennessee, which is part of the ACC/SEC Challenge next week).
Thursday’s stayovers
The bottom four teams will have to stay in Vegas and play on Thursday.
Those games will be played at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (Vegas time) in the Michelob Ultra Arena.
If UNLV does not qualify for the championship or third-place game, the Runnin’ Rebels will fill one of the two matchups regardless of ranking.
If a Thursday matchup pits two teams from the same conference or the teams play in 2025-26, the matchups will be switched.
If somehow the matchups cannot be switched, then the higher ranked team (based on the above criteria) will be moved to Wednesday and the lowest ranked team (No. 14) scheduled for Wednesday will move to Thursday.
