Big 12, Players Era sign $50M hoops deal with NIL payouts - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — In the years ahead, the Big 12 will get eight automatic bids to the Players Era Festival as part of a $50 million equity partnership with the top college basketball event, officials announced on Monday, the first day of the tournament.

The partnership will create a new financial relationship between the Big 12 and the Players Era, which gives every participant a guaranteed $1 million NIL payout. It also ensures that the event will have eight teams each year from one of the country's top conferences as it prepares to expand to 32 squads in 2026.

In this year's event, No. 2 Houston, No. 24 Kansas, No. 16 Iowa State and Baylor are key teams in a Players Era field that features nine top-25 programs. The league's representatives — beginning next season through the 2029-2030 event — will be determined by the previous year's conference standings. Had the agreement been in place for this season's event, Houston, Texas Tech, Arizona, BYU, Iowa State, Kansas, Baylor and West Virginia would have all been included.

«The Big 12 Conference continues to lead collegiate athletics' movement into a new landscape, and we are incredibly proud to enter into this partnership,» Seth Berger, CEO of the Players Era Festival, said in the event's release. «The conference has been instrumental to our growth from day one. The Big 12 now receives guaranteed access to the biggest college basketball event outside of March and it will benefit perennial powers and teams with national championship aspirations. Over the next six years, Players Era will commit no less than $50 million dollars to Big 12 basketball programs in rights fees.»

Since the 2013-14 season, the Big 12 has finished first or second in KenPom's conference rankings 11 out of