We already knew the teams. Now comes word of dates, times, television partners and a venue for the NIL-based Players Era Festival college basketball event in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving week.
San Diego State, as previously announced, is in a four-team round-robin tournament with Creighton, Oregon and Texas A&M, all of which appear in multiple preseason top 25 rankings. (The other pod has Alabama, Houston, Notre Dame and Rutgers.)
The Aztecs’ schedule, as revealed by CBS Sports on Wednesday:
Nov. 26 (Tuesday): vs. Creighton at 11 a.m. PST.
Nov. 27 (Wednesday): vs. Oregon at 1 p.m. PST.
Nov. 30 (Saturday): vs. Texas A&M at 4 p.m. PST.
Games will be played at the 16,000-seat MGM Grand Garden Arena, which is attached to the MGM Grand hotel and formerly hosted the Pac-12 basketball tournament before it moved across The Strip to T-Mobile Arena. They’ll be televised on TBS, TNT or truTV, or streamed on Max.
There are two notable changes from the original plan.
SDSU opens against Creighton instead of Texas A&M, which it now plays last. And there are two off days before the final round of games instead of one, presumably to avoid TV conflicts with football on Thanksgiving day and Friday.
That opens the possibility for SDSU, being a one-hour flight from Las Vegas, of treating it like the Mountain West season and flying home for practice (and Thanksgiving dinner) between the Wednesday and Saturday games.
“We haven’t decided what we’re going to do,” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said. “We have some things to look at, depending on what our commitment is to the tournament itself, whether we have obligations beyond the games.”
The Players Era Festival is an outgrowth of the NIL era in college sports, offering $1 million per team payable to its NIL collective plus up to another $1 million to the champion.
“In addition to an innovative format designed to invigorate early season tournament competition before the start of conference play,” the event’s website says, “there will also be live music, financial education programs, and multiple on-call NIL opportunities for players.”
The viability of the event was thrust into question last week, when a report surfaced in Sportico about an NCAA memo sent to nonconference tournament promoters outlining the organization’s rules for multi-team events. It noted that it is “impermissible” for athletes to receive NIL payouts from a multi-team event.
It also reminded operators that NCAA rules prohibit a conference from sending more than one team to a particular MTE. The inaugural Players Era Festival has two teams from each of the SEC and Big Ten, although in what it claims are separate four-team events.
“Even if the MTE is structured in such a way (e.g., divisions/brackets) in which two teams from the same conference will not play each other,” the NCAA memo said, “two teams from the same conference may not participate in the same MTE.”
Wednesday’s report of dates, times, TV partners and a venue, then, represents the latest indication that the Las Vegas event intends to move forward as planned. SDSU officials privately said they have been in regular contact with the NCAA and are confident the event remains in compliance.
The more difficult task, though, lies ahead: winning.
In Fox Sports’ preseason rankings, Creighton is No. 14, Texas A&M is No. 18 and Oregon is No. 23. Analyst Jon Rothstein also has all three in his top 25. CBS Sports has A&M at No. 11. ESPN has A&M at No. 12 and Creighton at No. 15.
The Aztecs? Coach Brian Dutcher must replace all five starters and six of his top seven scorers from last season’s Sweet 16 team. The 2024-25 roster has size and talent and potential, but it skews far younger than recent editions with four freshmen plus a sophomore who barely played.
“Every game is going to be a challenge, we know that,” Dutcher said. “These are all really good teams. It’s what we need, being in the Mountain West. We need to play teams like this to give ourselves a chance to build a resume. I want to win every game, but if we lose one, it’s not going to be an end-of-the-world type of loss.”
The remainder of the nonconference schedule could be released as early as next week, once one final opponent has been secured. We know it also includes a home game against Gonzaga tentatively on Nov. 18 and a neutral-court date in San Jose against Cal on Dec. 21, plus a reported December game at Viejas Arena against the WAC’s Cal Baptist.
The Mountain West is moving to a fully balanced round-robin conference schedule this season with 20 games, meaning you no longer skip one home and one away opponent. It is expected to include one game in mid-December and another in late December, followed by the regular slate of games in January, February and early March.
That limits SDSU to a maximum of 11 nonconference dates. With six of those known, that leaves five, one of which likely will be a non-Division I opponent. SDSU had three multiyear series with BYU, UCSD and Grand Canyon that all ended last year.
The biggest difference is that the Aztecs played four true nonconference road games last year, unheard of for a program of their stature, and they likely will play none this fall. There will be four on neutral floors and the other seven at Viejas Arena.
Originally Published: