Rutgers basketball is scheduled to head back to the Players Era Tournament next season, but this time, things are going to look drastically different because the tournament has expanded to 24 teams and has been split into two separate brackets. On top of all of these changes, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello reported on Thursday morning that the Players Era Tournament and EverWonder Studio, the company behind the tournament, have agreed to a multiyear deal with ESPN to become the tournament’s exclusive broadcast
partner.
The tournament itself has been divided into two brackets, one of 8 teams and one of 16 teams. Rutgers will play in the 8-team bracket, dubbed the Players Era 8, on the week of November 16th, while the other 16-team bracket, dubbed the Players Era 16, will take place the following week, the same week as Thanksgiving, the same week the tournament was held in years past.
The seven other teams Rutgers will be competing against in their 8-team bracket are Florida, Houston, Kansas, Auburn, West Virginia, Notre Dame, and UNLV while defending national champion Michigan, Alabama, Gonzaga, St. John’s, Louisville, Tennessee, Iowa State, Miami, Texas Tech, Baylor, Maryland, TCU, Oregon, Creighton, San Diego State, and Kansas State will compete in the 16 team bracket.
The brackets for each of the tournaments are yet to be released, along with the NIL opportunities for the winners; however, it has been released that the payout for all schools in the tournament averages out to be just slightly over 1 million dollars just for participating.
Rutgers is 2-4 in the Players Era Tournament overall. In 2024, they took down Notre Dame in an overtime thriller before being bested by No.9 Alabama the next day, and then falling to No.20 Texas A&M in their final game of the tournament. In 2025, the Knights were blown out in the first round by No.17 Tennessee before having their comeback fall just short against Notre Dame the following day. They picked up their second win in tournament history by beating UNLV 80-65 on Thanksgiving.
