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College basketball’s version of LIV Golf arrived last year — the Players Era Festival — and it wasted no time shaking things up. Launched with just eight teams, the Las Vegas–based, NIL-powered event immediately disrupted the nonconference landscape. Its arrival has already put serious pressure on the traditional holiday tournaments that once ruled early-season college hoops. And the reason programs are suddenly lining up for it? Simple. Money. A whole lot of it. So, how much are teams and players actually making from the Players Era Festival? According to Jeff Goodman’s post on X, Players Era founder Seth Berger revealed that on average, every team will earn more than $1 million in NIL compensation. “With the NIL opportunities, the kids actually have to perform activations, marketing services, social media postings, and so we make sure that each kid, each athlete is meeting fair-market value for that,” said Berger to ESPN. “And again, it’s in excess of a million dollars on average per team.” (This is a developing news…) 

<p>College basketball’s version of LIV Golf arrived last year &#8212; the Players Era Festival &#8212; and it wasted no time shaking things up. Launched with just eight teams, the Las Vegas–based, NIL-powered event immediately disrupted the nonconference landscape. Its arrival has already put serious pressure on the traditional holiday tournaments that once ruled early-season college [&hellip;]</p>


Akash Das is an NCAA and WNBA Writer at EssentiallySports, where his bylines dive deep into the structural side of basketball. With a postgraduate diploma in Mass Communication and a Master’s in Sports Business &amp; Management from the University of Liverpool, he grounds every feature in strong reporting fundamentals and academic rigor. His coverage tracks how coaching blueprints, roster construction, and roster moves, from the NCAA transfer portal to WNBA free agency, shape outcomes on the court.  

His sharp breakdowns at the WNBA desk earned him a spot in the outlet’s prestigious Journalistic Excellence Program, putting him among ES’ most trusted voices on basketball. Beyond box scores, Akash is driven by the bigger picture: how programs are built, maintained, and rebuilt in the NCAA pipeline, and how those systems intersect with the professional game.  

With experience across sports writing, research, and media strategy, he brings nuance to topics often overlooked in day-to-day highlights coverage. Whether examining the long-term vision behind a college program or the ripple effect of player mobility in the WNBA, Akash connects fans to the tactical and structural heart of the sport.

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Cutting Edge NCAA Takes

Akash Das

Will Every Players Era Team Receive $1M? Co-Founder Clarifies NIL Compensation
Before Championship Tip-Off

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Will Every Players Era Team Receive $1M? Co-Founder Clarifies NIL Compensation Before Championship Tip-Off

College basketball’s version of LIV Golf arrived last year — the Players Era Festival — and it wasted no time shaking things up. Launched with just eight teams, the Las Vegas–based, NIL-powered event immediately disrupted the nonconference landscape. Its arrival has already put serious pressure on the traditional holiday tournaments that once ruled early-season college […]

https://www.essentiallysports.com/ncaa-college-basketball-news-will-every-players-era-team-receive-one-m-co-founder-clarifies-nil-compensation-before-championship-tip-off/

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Will Every Players Era Team Receive $1M? Co-Founder Clarifies NIL Compensation Before Championship Tip-Off - EssentiallySports

EssentiallySports is the home for the underserved fan, delivering storytelling that goes beyond the headlines. As a media platform, we combine deep audience insights with cultural trends, to meet fandom where it lives and where it goes next. Founded in 2014, EssentiallySports now engages with an audience of over 30m+ American sports fan on its website and 1m+ readers on its newsletters daily.

EssentiallySports

Akash Das is an NCAA and WNBA Writer at EssentiallySports, where his bylines dive deep into the structural side of basketball. With a postgraduate diploma in Mass Communication and a Master’s in Sports Business &amp; Management from the University of Liverpool, he grounds every feature in strong reporting fundamentals and academic rigor. His coverage tracks how coaching blueprints, roster construction, and roster moves, from the NCAA transfer portal to WNBA free agency, shape outcomes on the court. His sharp breakdowns at the WNBA desk earned him a spot in the outlet’s prestigious Journalistic Excellence Program, putting him among ES’ most trusted voices on basketball. Beyond box scores, Akash is driven by the bigger picture: how programs are built, maintained, and rebuilt in the NCAA pipeline, and how those systems intersect with the professional game. With experience across sports writing, research, and media strategy, he brings nuance to topics often overlooked in day-to-day highlights coverage. Whether examining the long-term vision behind a college program or the ripple effect of player mobility in the WNBA, Akash connects fans to the tactical and structural heart of the sport.