The Players Era Festival has burst onto the college basketball scene over the past few seasons, coinciding with the NIL era of college sports. There are 16 teams in the tournament vying for a $1 million NIL award. This season, Michigan has been the star team after dominating Auburn to reach the title game. The format has been confusing to media pundits and fans because point differential is also a factor, but co-founder Seth Berger is not keen on changing the format yet.
The Player's Era has 16 teams now, but in 2026, they are expanding to 32 teams, and despite the expansion, they are sticking with their current format. Berger's reasoning after speaking to the media was that he wanted this tournament to differentiate itself from the others in November. He also wants it to be unique and stand out, and this current format allows for that.
“We do something different so actually you're not just watching the same thing you've been watching every November, just with more teams,” co-founder Seth Berger said at his Tuesday press conference following the Tennessee-Houston game. “We're trying to bring November basketball to more casual fans, so clearly one of the things we have to do is continue educating about why our format is unique and it's exciting. In this format every shot matters, every basket matters, every minute matters.”
On its surface, the point he is making makes sense, and it also makes sense not to change anything if you want the format to catch on, but with more eyeballs on the tournament, they might be forced to change the tournament due to pressure from the schools, combined with pressure from the fans.
Berger has compared the tournament to an AAU event. Margin of victory, record, point totals, and head-to-head records all went into determining who was playing in the championship game on Wednesday night. Tennessee has highlighted one issue with the tournament. The Tennessee Volunteers dominated their first game against Rutgers. Then they upset Houston, thanks to Bishop Boswell, but they missed the title game due to point differential, and instead Gonzaga and Michigan are playing for the title.
The Players Era is the future of college basketball because it rewards players directly. Still, the format will remain a point of contention as more eyeballs watch the tournament year over year.
