Changes are coming to the Players Era Festival. The premier early season multi-team college basketball event is officially expanding to 24 teams in 2026, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello first reported Thursday.
The event will be divided into two weeks with eight teams playing in a tournament the first week and 16 teams playing in a tournament the second week.
Tennessee is in the 16-team tournament Thanksgiving week. Despite it being a 16-team event, the Vols will play three games in the event unless they go 3-0 and make it to the championship game, a source told RTI. In that case, Tennessee would play four games. But otherwise, the Vols will play three games like they did a season ago.
It’s another strong field this season with potential opponents for Tennessee including Alabama, Gonzaga, Michigan, Louisville, St. John’s, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Miami, Maryland, Baylor, TCU, Oregon, Creighton, San Diego State and Kansas State.
It’s the second straight season that Tennessee has competed in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. The Vols went 2-1 a season ago, defeating Rutgers and Houston before falling to Kansas in the third place game.
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Players Era will release the full schedule for the event later this offseason. A season ago, Tennessee played the Monday through Wednesday of Thanksgiving week.
While Tennessee has yet to release its non conference schedule for next season, it is beginning to come into view.
The Vols will host Big 10 power Michigan State at home while traveling to Mackey Arena to face Purdue on Dec. 12.
Tennessee will, again, participate in the ACC-SEC Challenge and is due for a home game in the event after playing at Syracuse last season. With the ACC improving, the Vols hope to get a solid opponent that can boost their resume before next season. We will see if the conferences avoid matching Tennessee up with Miami and Louisville due to both teams being in the 16-team Players Era Tournament.
Rick Barnes’ 12th Tennessee team will play at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville for a second straight season, this time facing off against former assistant coach Justin Gainey and North Carolina State.
