New In-Season College Basketball Tournament to Offer NIL Money to Participating Teams

Name, image and likeness (NIL) continues to transform college sports.

A first-of-its-kind college basketball tournament is expected to launch this fall and will offer up to $2 million in NIL money to participating teams and players, according to Front Office Sports.

A tournament called Players Era — operated by EverWonder Studio and AND1 CEO of Basketball Seth Berger — will host eight teams at MGM Arena this fall. The field is expected to expand to 16 teams in 2025.

According to FOS, tournament organizers are in discussions with Alabama, Duke, FAU, Houston, Kansas, Oregon, San Diego State, St. John's, Syracuse and Virginia to be a part of the tournament.

Each school will be offered a total of $1 million in NIL money for participating. That money will be directed towards boosters, collectives and NIL entities and be distributed by the teams how they seem fit.

It is still unclear whether this sort of tournament will meet NCAA guidelines. Collectives have been a topic of controversy in the NIL universe. Schools are not able to pay players directly, but the way around that under current NIL guidelines includes schools creating NIL collectives in order to pay the players.

In the ever-changing world of college sports, it's difficult to imagine what the future looks like. But an NIL tournament seems like a feasible next step.