Players Era is a college hoops fan’s dream, embrace it

Maui Invitational: broke. Players Era Festival: bespoke.

Okay, maybe I wouldn’t go that far, throwing our beloved Maui tournament under the bus. But when it comes to nearly every other college basketball holiday tournament, the sentiment holds. Players Era has ushered in a new, higher standard when it comes to these early-season college hoops events.

And the formula is actually quite simple. Players Era looks better. It feels more important. It has better teams. There are real stakes involved (read: NIL money). And TNT Sports invested in the event in a way simply impossible for other smaller tournaments to pull off, no matter which network is broadcasting the games.

In Year 2, Players Era more than doubled its field, going from eight teams in its inaugural tournament to 18 teams this season. That decision hasn’t watered down the product, however. It’s a blue blood bonanza. Kansas, Houston, Michigan, Gonzaga, St. John’s, Syracuse, Maryland, Alabama; all elevated brands with recent success and/or a history of success on the hardwood. Compare that with this year’s field in Maui — Arizona State, Texas, USC, NC State, Washington State, Seton Hall, Boise State, and Chaminade — and it’s no contest. The best college basketball is being played in Las Vegas during Thanksgiving week, which gets to my next point.

Consolidating all these teams into one city yields far superior production. TNT Sports, which is essentially providing wall-to-wall NCAA Tournament-style coverage of the event on TNT and truTV all week, can concentrate all its resources on one city across two arenas. That means more cameras, reporters on-site at each game, and a more polished production than other, smaller holiday tournaments.

ESPN, on the other hand, has countless such tournaments to produce during its annual “Feast Week” college basketball buffet. No knock on ESPN, but I don’t foresee the network investing the same level of resources to cover Vanderbilt-Western Kentucky from a glorified ballroom in the Bahamas, but bringing 18 of the best brands in college basketball to Sin City? That’s something any network could get behind.

That’s another thing Players Era has going for it. The tournament is played in an actual arena in an actual city. Sure, detractors will say the arena is more than half-empty, ruining the “aura” of a typical college basketball game. But have you watched the first round of the NCAA Tournament? Those arenas aren’t exactly packed for noon ET tip-offs. Heck, even the best conference tournaments don’t fill up until the semifinals! Those games aren’t ruined because the arenas are empty. And it’s not like the Baha Mar is going to be popping off for Virginia Tech-Colorado State the day before Thanksgiving as it is!

Then, there’s the NIL component of Players Era. I suppose for folks who are opposed to paying college kids to play sports, this is a turnoff. But for the rest of us, a competition with added stakes is pretty cool! Better yet, the incentive allows Players Era to attract and retain the best teams in the sport continually. Next year, when Players Era expands to 32 teams, the event will feel like a mini March Madness.

There’s no traditional bracket, but having every team involved in a single competition, rather than spread across various four- and eight-team tournaments, makes Players Era feel more important, even if it’s functionally the same as any other event. Watching the TNT broadcast and seeing a full-screen graphic of each team’s record in the event, with point differential as the pivotal tiebreaker, is just quirky enough to add intrigue to the format without ruining the part that actually matters: the games.

Here’s the best part. Look at this schedule. We’re talking four straight days of high-level college hoops, with the first game starting at 1 p.m. ET and the last game not tipping off until midnight.

Thanksgiving week is a time when many among us have inconsistent life schedules, pockets of downtime throughout the day that normally wouldn’t happen. You’re traveling, you have a half-day at work, you can stay up late because you don’t have work the next morning. The beauty of Players Era is that no matter when those unexpected pockets of downtime occur, there’s going to be a quality basketball game to turn on.

If you feel like mourning the inevitable decline of Maui, or the Battle 4 Atlantis, or the Paradise Jam, I can’t blame you. I love those tournaments too. But I’ve had to make a similar cope recently with the downfall of my beloved NIT. We’re seeing the future of Thanksgiving college hoops in Las Vegas this week. Embrace it, because Players Era is here to stay. And it’s awesome.