The 2025 Players Era Festival brought 18 teams to Las Vegas, each guaranteed two games hand-selected by the tournament.
The Broken Format
That’s where the confusion started. Those opening matchups were built to deliver marquee, top-25 battles for fans, the main advantage of ditching a traditional bracket. Without a bracket, organizers could pair heavyweight programs right away instead of waiting for them to meet later.
This years championship and third place matchups were decided by the following in order.
- Win/loss record
- Head-to-head record
- Point differential (capped at 20 points per game)
- Total points scored
- Total points allowed
- Associated Press ranking as of Monday, Nov. 24
On paper, it looks great. The two most dominant teams meet in the championship, and the next two fight for third. But for Iowa State, the matchups told a different story. Their draw with St John's was not a warm-up game or a ranking booster. It was a heavyweight matchup between two teams sitting side by side in the polls, and it turned into a dogfight from start to finish with Iowa State defeating St John's 83-82. And that is where the format failed them.
A close battle against a similar opponent gave Iowa State almost no separation in the standings. They earned a quality win, but other teams were blowing out weaker opponents and building margins that mattered far more in the final sorting. Iowa State went head to head with a top team, won, and still slipped behind programs with easier schedules and bigger scoring spreads.
The Fixed Finish
If this tournament were redesigned under a new vision, its foundation would be built on one principle: winning should matter most. Instead of relying on point margin to separate teams, the top 6 teams based on strength of wins would move on to a bracket.
Seeding would also be determined by the strength of schedule, ensuring that tougher paths are recognised rather than ignored. The result is a format that rewards performance, values quality, and gives every undefeated team a fair and direct shot at prize money.
Giving every team $1 million in NIL funds is a strong incentive for bringing top programs to Las Vegas. But guaranteeing three games to every team is not an efficient use of national television inventory. If a team does not perform, there should not be a built-in third appearance. The tournament already runs Monday through Thursday, so extending through Thanksgiving and transitioning into bracket play would be a natural solution.
Bracket play would begin Wednesday with two opening matchups: No. 3 seed vs. No. 6 seed, and No. 4 seed vs. No. 5 seed. The top two seeds would receive a bye, earning a day off as a reward for stronger results. The tournament would then reseed for Thursday, when two semifinals could be played early in the day to avoid conflict with NFL broadcast windows. Start times of 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. ET would be early for Las Vegas, but understandable, given what is on the line financially. This would also give the teams a few more needed hours of rest before the championship.
The championship would be played Friday night in prime time, with the third-place game as a lead-in if desired. A Friday conclusion would also open the door for the women’s tournament to begin the same day, creating back-to-back, nationally relevant events and giving both fields the spotlight.
The Players Era Festival created something new in college basketball, but new does not always mean perfect. If the event wants to stand as a flagship of NIL competition and national exposure, it needs a postseason that rewards performance over point margin. A bracket built on the strength of schedule, with undefeated teams given a path to real stakes, turns the week from a showcase into a true competition. Fans would get clarity. Teams would get purpose. And the court, not the formula, would decide who earns the million.