Welcome to BamaCentral’s “Just a Minute,” a video series featuring BamaCentral’s Alabama sportswriters. Several times a week, the writers come together to offer their opinion on a topic related to the Crimson Tide or the landscape of college sports.
Watch the video above as BamaCentral editor Hunter De Siver discusses Alabama basketball’s opponents at the Players Era Festival.
On June 12, it was announced that the Alabama men’s basketball team will participate in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas during Thanksgiving week during the upcoming basketball season.
On Wednesday, the schedule for each team’s showcase was revealed by CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander. The Crimson Tide will play three games.
Each of these contests will be held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and broadcast on either TNT, TBS, truTV or streaming on MAX.
The Players Era Festival is the first NIL-based multi-team event for college basketball, which will take place in Las Vegas during Thanksgiving week of the upcoming basketball season. When the event was announced, it was stated that participating teams would receive $1 million in NIL incentives.
However, there are currently still issues with the Players Era Festival, as Sportico reported on August 21: “The NCAA has reiterated that under its bylaws it is ‘impermissible’ for athletes to receive NIL money for participating in a (multi-team event), even if that money is initially processed through a collective. EverWonder (the studio that hosts the event), which has previously stated that it is working with the NCAA, has attempted to portray the money it pays to collectives as tied to ‘NIL opportunities’ for athletes with ‘out-of-competition sponsors.'”
Still, the Crimson Tide is expected to face the three mentioned above.
The matchup against Houston will be one of the Tide’s toughest challenges of the entire season, as the Cougars were among the top seeds in the NCAA tournament in March and finished third in the final AP poll.
Rutgers finished last season with a subpar 15-17 record, but this game could be exciting as Alabama transfer center Clifford Omoruyi played for the Scarlet Knights for the last four years.
Finally, Notre Dame and the Crimson Tide have only faced each other five times, but the Fighting Irish lead the series 3-2. A win for Alabama, which is expected to be a top-five team heading into the first week of the college basketball season, would even the overall series against a Notre Dame team that went 13-20 last season.
