Sources: Houston, St. John’s headline Gamers Period

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  height =”40″/ > Myron MedcalfJul 1, 2025, 04:39 PM ET Close Myron Medcalf covers college basketball for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2011.

The next edition of the Players Period Festival in Las Vegas will include more than $20 million in payments and a collection of the top teams in America.Following an accidental

leakage of the Thanksgiving week event’s schedule by Michigan on Tuesday, sources verified the slate, which will include 10 teams currently ranked on ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25 survey for the 2025-26 season, consisting of top-10 squads St. John’s, Michigan and Houston.Each team is ensured a minimum of a$ 1 million payment, a considerable amount in the new environment of collegiate sports after your house settlement. Last year, event authorities paid the schools directly for their participation. It’s uncertain how this season’s payouts will be distributed to line up with the brand-new guidelines, which have actually offered every power-conference school a cap of nearly$20 million to offer directly to its athletes.Editor’s Picks 1 Related This year, the Players Period Festival groups will contend on Nov. 24 and Nov. 25 at both the MGM Grand Garden Arena and Michelob

Ultra Arena in Las Vegas with a chance to advance to Wednesday’s championship game, which will include an additional payout to the winner, sources confirmed.The inaugural ladies’s part of the event will likewise feature a foursome of powerhouses with South Carolina, Duke, UCLA and Texas all set to complete in Las Vegas that week, too.This year

‘s occasion on the males’s side will consist of Kansas (21st ), Creighton( 22nd), St. John’s(5th), Tennessee (23rd ), Iowa State( 18th ), Houston (3rd ), Auburn( 14th), Alabama(17th), Michigan

(8th )and Gonzaga( 19th). Michigan-Auburn, St. John’s-Iowa State and Alabama-Gonzaga are three of the leading matches in the initial rounds.After his group’s run to the Final Four in April, Tahaad Pettiford withdrew from the NBA draft and went back to become the brand-new leader of an Auburn team with SEC title dreams. Michigan, which won the Big Ten competition title last season however lost

Danny Wolf in the NBA draft, regrouped by adding NBA possibility Yaxel Lendeborg and other essential transfers.Rick Pitino’s St. John’s team might win the Big East once again if Providence transfer Bryce Hopkins is healthy, while 3 of Iowa State’s beginners from a team that earned a 3-seed in the NCAA tournament are back. And both Alabama and Gonzaga will get in next season with the very same objectives: to win the first national title in school history.The buildup to last year’s occasion was consulted with hesitation as organizers guaranteed seven-figure payments to the 8 teams that accepted participate in the inaugural affair. But those who played in the Players Period Celebration were impressed by the way it was arranged.

Seven of the 8 teams that participated in the very first occasion will return this year.”I could not say no,”Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson said about in 2015’s chance to earn a seven-figure payday for his players in the event.The slate’s statement is significant since the Players Period Festival has captured a large part of the top teams in America and the organizers

of the occasion plan to expand the field in the years ahead. That reality has actually limited the reach and talent pool offered to some of the other vacation tournaments(

MTEs )in November and December.