Syracuse to play Houston, Kansas in 2025 Players Era Festival
Syracuse is slated to face Houston and Kansas in the 2025 Players Era Festival this November. Leonardo Eriman | Photo Editor
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Syracuse men’s basketball will face Houston and Kansas in the first two rounds of the Players Era Festival in November, Dylan Burkhardt of umhoops.com reported Tuesday. The tournament will be held in Las Vegas, with participating teams earning $1 million.
After only including eight teams in 2024, the tournament is set to feature 18 squads in 2025, with a potential expansion to 32 teams in 2026, per CBS Sports. Besides the Orange and their scheduled opponents, marquee programs like Tennessee, Auburn and Alabama round out the field, which will be marketed as “November Mania.”
SU’s matchup with Houston — last season’s NCAA Tournament runner-up — is set for 6 p.m. EST on November 24, while its battle with Kansas will be at 3:30 p.m. EST on November 25. Both teams earned spots in the top-15 of ESPN’s way-too-early 2025-26 rankings, with the Cougars projected at No. 1 overall. Syracuse’s next matchup will be determined after the first two rounds of games conclude.
Rumors of Syracuse’s inclusion in the event started in May 2024. CBS Sports originally said it had engaged in discussions, but Inside the Loud House and syracuse.com confirmed the news a few days later.
The $1 million distributed to Syracuse will be deposited into SU’s NIL collective Orange United, Jason Belzer, the founder of Student Athlete NIL, said last year to syracuse.com. After the inaugural tournament last year, Sports Business Journal reported participating players may earn individual NIL contracts, but that hasn’t been confirmed for the 2025 tournament.
Besides NIL incentives, SU is looking to rebound from a poor 2024-25 season. The Orange went 14-19 and were bounced in the second round of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament by SMU. Incoming transfers like Naithan George and Nate Kingz and star freshmen Kiyan Anthony and Sadiq White are expected to help Syracuse return to form.
