Two and a half months after the Players Era Championship men’s basketball multi-team event took place over 2025 Thanksgiving week, multiple participating teams are still waiting for their athletes’ NIL funds to be released.
Players Era, co-created by Seth Berger and RedBird IMI’s EverWonder Studio, upended the college MTE landscape when it launched in 2024 with a jaw-dropping proposition: a guaranteed $1 million in NIL money for every participating team. The offer immediately raised eyebrows across the industry, with rival operators questioning both the financial logic behind the model and how delivering the money to players would get approved.
Defying the doubters, just a couple of weeks after Players Era’s inaugural Las Vegas event in November 2024, it announced it distributed a combined $8 million to the eight participating teams. This season, however, the payments are lagging behind for at least some schools, according to multiple people familiar with the situation.
The main holdup, say sources, is that player NIL deals have yet to receive clearance from the College Sports Commission (CSC), which is reviewing the arrangements for compliance with the terms of the House v. NCAA settlement. In some instances, the CSC has requested additional information.
The delay has caused angst at some schools, which were counting on the money arriving sooner than it has. The current college basketball season is entering its final leg with Selection Sunday less than five weeks away and the men’s basketball transfer portal opening March 23.
What remains unclear is the extent to which these delays are attributable to Players Era, the CSC’s review process, or the schools themselves. Representatives for the CSC and Players Era declined to comment.
Sources say that Players Era has served as the main liaison with the commission on the matter.
Players Era has employed multiple contracting structures for its two-year-old event. Initially, before the House settlement took effect, the company signed agreements with schools’ affiliated NIL collectives, which then distributed the $1 million to their respective athletes. Separately, Players Era also executed game-participation agreements directly with universities that included financial considerations to cover travel and lodging expenses.
For this most recent tournament, Players Era contracted directly with some schools, which elected to use the funds to supplement their revenue-share payments provided for under the House settlement. Those monies would not fall under CSC’s purview.
A third contract structure involves direct agreements between Players Era or its sponsors and individual athletes, which would be subject to CSC oversight.
Last year’s Players Era men’s championship featured 18 men’s teams: Auburn, Oregon, UNLV, Maryland, Kansas, Notre Dame, Michigan, San Diego State, Houston, Syracuse, Creighton, Baylor, Gonzaga, Alabama, St. John’s, Iowa State, Rutgers and Tennessee.
As Sportico previously reported, the NIL arrangement between UNLV and Players Era was originally contracted through Blueprint Sports, the operator of the Friends of UNLV Collective. Under that deal, Players Era agreed to pay Blueprint Sports $800,000, which would eventually go to Runnin’ Rebels athletes. Players Era signed a separate, $200,000 game participation agreement with UNLV directly. Both agreements required funds to be placed in escrow a month prior to the event, with payments due within two weeks to UNLV and five days to Blueprint Sports.
On Jan. 13, UNLV sent two invoices to Players Era—one for $750,000 and another for $250,000—according to documents obtained via a public records request made the following day.
The status of those payments is not known; a school spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry from Sportico. Spokespersons for the other participating schools, with the exception of Iowa State, either declined to comment or did not respond. Iowa State said this week it was still awaiting payment but offered no further details.