ESPN, Players Era announce multiyear media rights deal

Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

After spending its first two years on TNT Sports, Players Era is on the move.

On Thursday, ESPN announced a multiyear media rights deal for the Players Era Men’s Championships, an early-season college basketball tournament that features many of the country’s top programs competing for an NIL prize pool. The deal comes after reports signaled Players Era was struggling to find a media rights partner that would pay its $50 million asking price, a fee well above what other multi-team events are able to fetch.

The 2026 Players Era will be split into two tournament brackets consisting of 24 teams. The “Players Era Eight” will take place the week before Thanksgiving and feature eight teams: Kansas, Florida, Houston, Auburn, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Rutgers and UNLV. The “Players Era Sixteen” will take place over five days during Thanksgiving Week, and the field will include Michigan, Gonzaga, St. John’s, Baylor, Louisville, Iowa State, Alabama, Tennessee, Miami, Texas Tech, Maryland, TCU, Oregon, Creighton, SDSU and Kansas State.

ESPN Events will now collaborate with EverWonder, the company that founded the event, on operations for Players Era. The deal ensures that ESPN will continue to air the vast majority of marquee multi-team events in men’s college basketball, which include tournaments like the Maui Invitational.

Players Era has made waves in the college basketball world throughout the course of its first two years by enticing top programs to participate with guaranteed NIL payouts, in addition to an NIL prize pool based on how far teams advance. However, those payments have not always gone to plan. Prior reports indicate Players Era has been late in issuing payments to schools including Oregon, UNLV, and Iowa State.

While the late NIL payments are certainly cause for concern, the product has proven to be a winner both on the court and on people’s screens. In its two years as lead broadcaster, , treating it almost as an NCAA Tournament dry run with on-site reporters, added cameras, and shoulder programming between each game.