A Feast Week primer (and weekend results)

Good morning! Who’s ready for the best non-March week of the year?

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1. It’s a new era for Feast Week with Players Era

The premier event of Feast Week this year isn’t the Maui Invitational, or the Battle 4 Atlantis, or any other MTE we’ve grown accustomed to watching over the years.

Instead, the Players Era Festival — where 18 of college basketball’s top programs meet in Vegas to play three games for participation and prize money around $30 million — will take center stage. And it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

Jeff Goodman reported that he tournament is set to expand to 32 teams next season. Florida, Louisville, Miami, Missouri, Ohio State and Virginia have reportedly signed contracts to join the already established field.

So it poses the question: are other Feast Week MTE’s, like Maui, in danger of becoming an afterthought, or even going extinct? Only if they don’t adapt to college basketball’s new era.

“I would say that would be up to the organizers and the event and the promoters to see if they can do whatever the Players Era is doing,” Bill Self told reporters Friday. “So I don’t think they’re in danger, unless, maybe they don’t make some adjustments.”

Kelvin Sampson said the financial incentives were too big to ignore: “We have to raise our money.” The Players Era allows them to do that, and if they win, which Houston has done a LOT lately, there’s more money available.

So the short answer is yes. Some of these MTE’s could be in trouble if they don’t change. NIL rules the world today, and right now, the Players Era has a monopoly.

Anyways, the tournament schedule is below.

Seeding for Wednesday’s Premier Four will be based on record with the tiebreakers being point differential, then points scored, then points allowed.

All of the Wednesday/Thursday games will be finalized right after the last game on Tuesday (UNLV-Alabama). This should be an awesome event with four straight days full of high-level basketball.

2. What to know about 10 other tourneys this week

There’s more than just the Players Era for Feast Week. Let’s dive into what to watch, plus the two massive non-conference games on the slate.

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