College Basketball Crown returns for second year with massive NIL prize pool, rock solid competition

Danny Parkins and LaPhonso Ellis unveil and react to the 2026 College Basketball Crown Tournament Bracket, featuring Baylor, Minnesota and Creighton. You can watch all games on FS1 and FOX.

The College Basketball Crown will return to Las Vegas on Wednesday for the second iteration of the postseason tournament, which features a $500,000 NIL prize pool.

Beyond the NIL money up for grabs, this year’s tournament will have some big names in men’s college hoops. Oklahoma, Colorado, Baylor, Minnesota, Stanford, West Virginia, Rutgers and Creighton will all vie for the championship.

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The Nebraska Cornhuskers winning the Crown College Basketball Championship against the UCF Knights at the T-Mobile Arena on April 6, 2025, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

LaPhonso Ellis, a former Notre Dame Fighting Irish star and FOX Sports broadcaster, told Fox News Digital that the Sooners are one of the teams he’s expecting to break out.

"Part of that is when you have to win a tournament like this, you first have to have engagement," Ellis explained. "I think these guys, having won six out of their last seven and missing (the NCAA Tournament), they have that sour taste in their mouths and you want to go out on a high note."

Ellis said he expected West Virginia to be with Oklahoma in the final game.

"I have them meeting West Virginia in the finals but I had them having a slight edge over West Virginia because West Virginia is really good defensively, one of the top 25 most efficient defenses in the country, but I think in the end, when you have a defense that has improved as much as the senior defense has improved over the last couple weeks, it comes down to your ability to