New NIL basketball tournament signals money scramble for competition | Goodbread

Las Vegas is the perfect host for the Players Era Festival. It is, after all, where the money is.

The new in-season college basketball tournament, still in the formative stages but poised to debut in November, will distribute a cool $1 million in NIL money to each of eight participating schools, through their respective collectives, according to CBS Sports. And if it's a success, notice will be served to every other in-season tourney that it's going to take more than an expense allowance to attract marquee schools going forward.

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Details surrounding the tournament are still a little soft — soft enough that even its eight-team field isn't quite set. On board are Alabama, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Houston, Rutgers, San Diego State and Oregon, per the report, with an eighth team still to be determined. The tournament would be played Thanksgiving week, squarely in competition with established in-season tournaments such as the Maui Invitational, the Emerald Coast Classic, which hosted Alabama last year, and so many others.

But with $1 million in NIL money available per school, those other tourneys would be competition only on the calendar. In terms of drawing the top programs in college basketball, it'll be decidedly non-competitive. And there's even more NIL money planned for the school that wins the tourney. So how will this tournament get around NCAA rules that prohibit pay for play? Players will be obligated to engage in various promotional activities during the week, lending their name, image and likeness. Of course, it won't amount to anywhere near $8 million in legit exposure value for the brands involved, but the L in NIL has never stood for legit, anyway.

For a top-tier coach, this isn't difficult math. You're Alabama coach Nate Oats, for example (he used to be a math teacher, anyway). You're filling out your schedule, and you've got options for various tournaments in November. They can all provide quality opponents. They can all put you on TV (or a streaming service) for your fan base. But one of them can stuff at least a million bucks into the NIL coffers — which is a far more effective recruiting tool than the trip itself — while others can't. No-brainer.

That's not to say the Maui Invitational and others like it will slip into oblivion; there are dozens of attractive programs and the Players Era Festival can't invite them all. But the lure of NIL money is going to rock the landscape of these tournaments in terms of priority. And while there are still plenty of good schools to go around for other tournaments, there could be eight fewer in 2025, by which time the event plans to double its field to 16 schools.

Until further notice, expect the Players Era Festival to draw who it wants when it wants, unless the other in-season tournaments follow suit with help from a high-dollar sponsor to offer NIL incentives of their own. And that could be precisely what happens as the ever-evolving NIL era progresses through its next iterations.

But there will have to be more money backing those tournaments to make that happen.

And right now, Vegas is where the money is.

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: New NIL basketball tournament signals money scramble for competition