Big 12, Players Era sign $50M hoops deal with NIL payouts

LAS VEGAS — The future scope of the Players Era Festival is starting to formulate, with a $50 million equity partnership with the Big 12 announced Monday and plans for a 32-team event beginning next season.

The Big 12 will receive eight automatic bids to the Festival as part of the equity partnership, creating a new financial relationship between the Big 12 and the Players Era, which gives every participating team a guaranteed $1 million NIL payout.

The event has expanded from eight teams last year to 18 this year, and the plan is to expand to 32 teams in a three-week format next year. Seth Berger, the CEO and founder of the Players Era, told ESPN there will be four eight-team groups. Two of the groups will play three games during the first week, while the other two groups will play three games during the second week. The four group winners will return for the third week and play one more game, either the championship game or third-place game.

In this year’s event, No. 2 Houston, No. 24 Kansas, No. 16 Iowa State and Baylor are key teams in a Players Era field that features nine top-25 programs. The league’s representatives — beginning next season through the 2029-2030 event — will be determined by the previous year’s conference standings. Had the agreement been in place for this season’s event, Houston, Texas Tech, Arizona, BYU, Iowa State, Kansas, Baylor and West Virginia would have all been included.

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Why is Houston back in Las Vegas for the second year in a row?

“They’re giving us $1 million,” Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson said. “That’s why we’re there, and I would say that’s why all the teams are there. We didn’t sign up for this to have a tournament where we could play each other. We signed up for this because they’re giving us $1 million. If they decided to put a court down at some vacant lot and they’d give us $1 million, I’d go play there, too.

“It saves us from having to go ask somebody else for the money. There is a thing called donor fatigue.”

“The Big 12 Conference continues to lead collegiate athletics’ movement into a new landscape, and we are incredibly proud to enter into this partnership,” Berger said in a release about the partnership announced on Monday, the first day of the event. “The conference has been instrumental to our growth from day one. The Big 12 now receives guaranteed access to the biggest college basketball event outside of March and it will benefit perennial powers and teams with national championship aspirations. Over the next six years, Players Era will commit no less than $50 million dollars to Big 12 basketball programs in rights fees.”

Since the 2013-14 season, the Big 12 has finished first or second in KenPom’s conference rankings 11 out of the past 12 seasons. The partnership with Players Era also demonstrates the ways leagues are creating new financial streams in the rev-share era.

According to sources, the Players Era aims to become an NCAA tournament-like event in November that will feature the best teams in college basketball. That ambition could include a new format and games that take place outside Las Vegas in the future. Its changes have already impacted other Feast Week events because of its rapid growth and payouts. Expansion in the years ahead will limit the number of available elite teams for other events within the sport as the Players Era event moves forward.

“The Big 12 Conference is thrilled to grow its partnership with Players Era,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said through the event’s release. “The tournament is a tremendous platform to showcase our conference, student-athletes and coaches as the best in college basketball, and we look forward to continuing to make Players Era a national marquee event.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.