Will an NIL-fueled showcase disrupt college hoops' MTE status quo? Coaches are doing the math

Last Thursday, $8 million was released from an escrow account to the name, image and likeness collectives of the eight teams that played in the Players Era Festival over Thanksgiving week, $1 million to each participating program.

Players from each team helped earn that money by signing autographs and appearing in some short-form content during their stay in Las Vegas, while playing in three basketball games over five days.

Advertisement They were the maiden participants in the next phase of an evolving pay-for-play model throughout college hoops, as teams from high-major conferences and one-bid leagues alike search for new ways to bring in cash, particularly through scheduling.

The multi-team events (MTEs) scattered throughout the first two months of the season, particularly around the holidays, were established to provide teams with high-quality nonconference games in cool locations.

Players Era is offering to turn those trips into a profit opportunity instead of a loss for the schools involved by contributing to the NIL pools each participant uses to pay its players.

The business model was met with some skepticism across the sport from coaches to more established MTE operators as to whether founder Seth Berger and his team would actually follow through with their concept.

But since Players Era pulled its inaugural tournament off, with several participating schools confirming to The Athletic that the funds went through, Berger says interest has boomed.

Its been nonstop, Berger said last week.

Like its good news and bad news that it went off well.

Now we have tons of opportunity, lots of people that want to get in, and now Ive got a lot to figure out.

Berger has plans and the interest to increase next years field to at least 18 schools.

A teams future MTE destinations used to be a factor in the pitch to recruits, but money has proven to be a stronger incentive.

Thats just moved further down on the totem pole in terms of relevance by way of making your decision as to where youre going to go to school, said Michigan State associate athletic director Kevin Pauga, who is in charge of building the Spartans schedule.

And so some of this is just looking at each nonconference game as an asset and how are you maximizing the value of that asset.

If youre not getting ROI on a game, like, why arent you? Advertisement Traditional MTEs, like the storied Maui Invitational, are in danger of taking a backseat if their models do not change.

Baylor and Oregon have already pulled out of the 2025 Maui Invitational with plans to attend the Players Era Festival instead.

(Baylor has signed a multi-year deal with the event, and Oregon, which won the inaugural championship, is in discussions to attend the next two, both schools confirmed to The Athletic .) Meanwhile, multiple high-major coaches and administrators wont rule out ever taking their teams back to the Maui Invitational but say they would not do so in the current format, mainly, because of cost.

Its so hard to acquire talent now, said one high-major coach, granted anonymity in order to speak candidly about his schools scheduling philosophy.

How are you going to turn down ways to get money to your players to lose money? When UConn coach Dan Hurley said he would never play in a three-game MTE again after the Huskies went 0-3 at the Maui Invitational earlier this season, the assumption was that he was upset about the results.

But coaches and administrators knew there was more nuance.

What your top 15, 20 brand programs have more or less said in general to these events is, well listen, Pauga said.

Come to us with a better financial model.

Come to us with a better format.

Do you really want to be playing three games in three days or three games even in four days? Present us some adjustments to your model.

And lets have a discussion.

The Maui Invitational is locked into its current format, with fields already in place, through 2027.

What could it look like beyond that? Its a fast-changing environment in all of college athletics, said Steve Skinner, CEO of KemperSports, which runs the Maui Invitational.

Were open to working with the schools and the programs and figuring out what is the best format for them and what is the best structure.

Were not locked in our ways.

We want the best competition, the best tournaments, and the best celebration of college basketball.

The biggest question those around the sport had about the Players Era Festival was this: Why would they be willing to lose so much money to put on this event? Berger, who founded the sneaker company AND1, says he came up with the idea when his middle son Quin was approached by an agent about signing away his NIL rights for $1,000.

Berger told his son that wasnt enough money to sign away any rights, and the conversation turned to how no one has been transparent about how much theyre paying players.

Advertisement That led to the idea of creating a tournament where the money went straight to players.

Players Era has worked with the NCAA to make sure everything cooperated with the organizations avoidance of pay-for-play relationships.

Last month the company hired Jeremy McCool, formerly the NCAAs director of basketball development, and McCools presence and background in enforcement helped assuage concerns as to whether the Players Era is operating under NCAA rules.

The first field, which included five teams in the AP preseason Top 25, was a strong one, and teams received bonuses for advancing through the event: an additional $100,000 went to fourth place, $150,000 to third place, $250,000 to second place and $500,000 to the winner.

Its a million dollars with a chance for $1.5 million, another high-major coach said.

How many nonconference games would we have to play for $1.5 million? That answer depends on the school; this high-major coach said his school makes approximately $250,000 every home game.

But coaches and administrators are looking at their financial futures and having a broader discussion about what those home schedules look like in the future, with no consensus strategies yet.

The dream scenario for our administration is a home-and-home, because youre not paying any buy money and youre drawing a huge, massive crowd, the second high-major coach said.

A lot of concessions, a lot of gate, you can sell it as part of your season ticket package.

But buy games serve a purpose.

It is better financial math for many high-majors to play two buy games for $100,000 each over a two-year period than to play a home-and-home, Pauga said.

And until the price of buy games exceeds that number, youre still going to have teams that financially are incentivized to play buy games.

GO DEEPER Court Vision: Crown SEC as nation's top league.

Big picture is bleak for ACC Whats best for the sport, however, might be to eliminate those games and create more high-quality matchups in November and December.

One of the league coaches said at our meetings, its not our responsibility to pay the bills of these MAC schools or these Horizon schools, the first high-major coach said.

We should be playing each other, and if we go .500 against a top-20 schedule, thats fine.

But thats better for the game and better for our schools, our players, everything than to play in eight money games that dont mean anything.

Advertisement This coach believes that the five big conferences Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, ACC and Big East could eventually figure out ways to push out the traditional MTEs and run their own early-season events.

Some leagues are already controlling at least one nonconference game through annual competitions like the SEC-ACC Challenge, which replaced the longtime Big Ten-ACC Challenge.

The goal is to make the most money possible off these nonconference games, especially with many big schools looking to find upwards of $20 million in their budgets to redirect to their athletes in all sports through revenue sharing once the House v.

NCAA settlement is finalized.

Noticeably, none of the blue blood schools have signed up to play in the Players Era, and thats because those schools can earn more elsewhere.

Instead of playing in traditional MTEs, two big schools can get together for a one-off, neutral-court game that offers a higher return on investment than the Players Era.

Kansas and Duke , for instance, created their own event in Las Vegas while the Players Era was happening, and their game was broadcast by ESPN at an overlapping time as TNTs broadcast of the highest-ranked matchup of the Players Era schedule, Alabama vs.

Houston .

Mid-majors Furman and Seattle were also invited to the event, with each playing a road game at Kansas and Duke to make it a true MTE.

The Kansas-Duke game was the second-most viewed game of the season 2.5 million viewers at its peak until it was surpassed on Thanksgiving by Illinois-Arkansas on CBS, which averaged 5.1 million viewers following the networks NFL game, making it the second-most viewed regular season game since 2008.

Last years Michigan State-Arizona game in the same window was the most-viewed in that timespan.

All three of those games were set up as part of MTEs.

Berger may not be able to land the biggest brands, but he has targeted winning programs that will strengthen the schedules of all of the participating schools.

The next challenge is filling the seats.

The crowds at the first event were solid but not sold out.

Thats the magic of the Maui Invitational: passionate fan bases crammed into a 2,400-seat gym not dissimilar from a large high schools.

Next years Players Era should offer a better atmosphere with the addition of more programs that traditionally travel well, like Iowa State, Gonzaga and Michigan.

That field, which will also include consistent winners Alabama, Baylor, Oregon, Creighton and Houston, will likely be the strongest of the 2025 MTE fields.

The immediate momentum Berger has built has drawn comparisons to Battle 4 Atlantis, the Bahamas-based event had the financial backing to quickly become one of the top November events when it debuted in 2011.

Advertisement Could it be profitable? Theres still a lot of skepticism, but coaches and administrators admit its the best solution yet for their needs.

Our mission here is to find ways within the NCAA regulations to compensate college basketball players with millions and millions dollars for their likenesses and create a compelling product for the fans to watch, Berger said.

An outcome of that impact will be profit.

But our decisions in the short term are how do we have the biggest impact, not how do we make the most amount of money.

The MTE is just the beginning of Bergers vision.

He also sees an opportunity to eventually enter the summer basketball space for college hoops, when and if the NCAA changes its rules around allowing teams to play each other during that time of year.

Currently, college teams can take a summer international trip every four years, but those trips are costly.

The NCAAs Oversight Committee is meeting in January to review MTEs and criteria moving forward.

Berger anticipates that summer basketball will also be discussed.

We have a bunch of things in front of us that are ready to press play once we get what the Oversight Committee says in January, Berger said.

We think college basketball is an undervalued asset and doesnt just have to live in a huge way only in March and conference play.

We think November is this great opportunity to create a tentpole event.

But also, I dont know about you, in August, when summer league ends, Im like, man, aint no basketball to watch.

I really wish I had some basketball to watch.

Why not? Lets do it.

(Photo: Candice Ward / Getty Images).

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