Why is Tennessee playing the so called 3rd place game?. They haven't lost. I know it's not a true single elimination tourney but if Tennessee wins why are they deemed 3rd place and why the Michigan-Gonzaga winner the champion . Why even have a champion, runner up and a 3rd place game in a format that's not even a true tourney. Just say these teams went 3-0 in the Players Era festival.

The cynical side of me thinks their stupid format is a way to have more social media engagement around the tournament from everyone's fans and beat writers asking about and explaining the point differential system.

So it's based on point differentials in festival games? . That's pitiful criteria imo since they didn't play same quality opponents .

Tiebreakers are all made up criteria always.

In the bigger picture it obviously doesn't really matter but it seems so presumptuous to me

I applaud the good ballgames but then they eff it all up with bs.

Yes. I guess you could argue that, conceptually, point differential with uneven opponents isn't any better or worse than just beating uneven opponents. But it's still dumb they don't just do brackets.

There has to be some kind of reason they do it this way but I can't figure it out. Maybe confusing everyone makes their plans less concrete and gets more people in the arena or something.

Agree . Just do brackets. Seed based on some sort of computer ranking on games to date which I acknowledge is also pretty shaky this early but to me the bracket distribution via some seeding criteria has a better chance of the best teams playing one another at some point than this random nonsense.

I mean maybe Michigan and Gonzaga would have ended up playing for the championship anyway but maybe not

halfastros81 said:

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In the bigger picture it obviously doesn't really matter but it seems so presumptuous to me

I applaud the good ballgames but then they eff it all up with bs.

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Except it does really matter and the whole thing is flat out dumb:

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/47103454/players-era-champion-get-extra-1m-nil-funds-says-ceo

Quote:

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LAS VEGAS -- Seth Berger, the CEO of the Players Era Festival, said the winner of the event's championship game Wednesday between Michigan and Gonzaga will receive an additional $1 million in name, image and likeness compensation.

The loser, meanwhile, will earn $500,000 in what will be college basketball's first $1.5 million game.
In addition, the winner of Wednesday's third-place game between Tennessee and Kansas will secure a $300,000 NIL payout; the loser of that matchup will take home $200,000 in such funds.

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Yeah , the NIL piece of it kinda makes it even worse .

Not related to this topic but I can't see anyone challenging Michigan this year. They slaughtered good teams . Beat Gonzaga like we beat Manhattan

They are likely changing it next year.

Article said they aren't changing the format but are expanding field to 32 teams including 8 B12 teams next year.

The Big 12 is apparently giving the Players Era tournament $50M to have 8 teams in this tournament for the next 5 years. That was announced just before this year's tournament started. This tournament is basically one big money washing operation. Last year, school's were paying a participation fee. That was washed thru the tournament and came out as NIL on the other side. Apparently, now some conferences will front the money for their schools.

If we were wondering where the money for this came from - after looking at the crowds and tv viewership - when comparing it to other holiday tournaments, now we know.

Well we're back in the thing next year. So however it's working let's hope it keeps it up. Definitely the premiere tournament now.

halfastros81 said:

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Article said they aren't changing the format but are expanding field to 32 teams including 8 B12 teams next year.

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Tournament head said they have heard the feedback and will likely adjust next year.

I hope they do.