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NCAAM The crowd at Wednesday's tournament final between Michigan and Gonzaga. Candice Ward / Getty Images LAS VEGAS — “Are you up or down? ” The well-intentioned traveler asked the question as a couple decked out in Gonzaga gear stepped on the elevator. They stared at him, puzzled. “Are you up or down in gambling? ” he clarified. “We’re here to watch basketball, ” the woman said, gesturing at her red and navy outfit. Advertisement The first man turned to his traveling companion. “There’s basketball here? Like in the casino? ” Welcome to the Players Era Festival, the new headliner of Feast Week. In just its second year, the 18-team tournament — which will grow to 32 in 2026 — promised big NIL payouts to teams, including a $1 million bonus to the champion, along with high-level matchups that could serve as NCAA Tournament previews. In those ways, the tournament got some crucial pieces very, very right. Thirteen hours of nonstop basketball resembling a mini March Madness is particularly enjoyable — and necessary — during a week when almost everyone needs a break from their families. But two years in, the tournament still feels soulless and sanitized, and it has work to do to foster the interest and excitement this sport desperately needs each November. Perhaps you saw No. 7 Michigan’s 101-61 dismantling of No. 12 Gonzaga in the championship, a stunning result from which the Zags are still smarting. It’s possible you noticed the empty seats. Some of that is because it was such a blowout, fans fled for the exits with 10 minutes to play. But in reality, this tournament of titans still too often comes across as flat on your TV screen. Multiple-team events (MTEs) have long been a foundational piece of college basketball’s nonconference slate. They are particularly popular around Thanksgiving, affectionately named “Feast Week” because there are so many games, you’ll definitely get your fill of hoops. It is the best stretch of college basketball after March Madness. The most famous MTE is the Maui Invitational, played each November in Hawaii. When you watch Maui, you want to be there — not on the beach but in that humidity-soaked, suffocating gym, living and dying with every basket. The stands are packed (with an assist from the Lahaina Civic Center’s 2, 400-seat capacity), the hula shirts are plentiful and the vibes are high. Advertisement The vibes in Vegas were more of the “building the plane while flying” variety, particularly when it came to the tournament setup.  Fortunately, we are here to help it become one bigger, better piece. Players Era is here to stay. And most importantly, it already has the elite teams. But there are some changes that could bolster the event for next year. I know the organizers can be fast on their feet; in a time where many stakeholders in college sports had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the NIL era, these guys had the vision to create this tournament. So I’m confident they can make improvements. Sports fans are a special bunch. They’ve been known to plan their days/lives/weddings around tip times and kickoffs. And during a busy, often stressful week, watching their favorite team is an excuse to escape. It’s hard to do that when you don’t know your game time or opponent for the next day until after midnight ET, which happened Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, infuriating Iowa State fans, who learned they were going to quickly turn around to play Syracuse at 1 p. m. ET on Wednesday. Without a bracket, the Players Era used point differential as a tiebreaker to set its top two matchups. That left the 2-0 Cyclones out in the cold, as four other 2-0 teams outscored their opponents by more. After saying Tuesday afternoon that the tourney planned to use the same — or at least a similar — format next season when the tournament expands, Players Era cofounder Seth Berger backtracked Wednesday, acknowledging the need to be flexible. “An 18-team tournament and a 32-team tournament will, by necessity, have different formats, ” Berger said, adding that he knows settling on a format must happen soon, because teams will be eager to plan the rest of their 2026-27 nonconference schedules. Advertisement “The format can be tweaked, ” Kansas coach Bill Self said after his team’s wild 81-76 comeback win over No. 17 Tennessee for third place. “You can still go by point differential, but you can’t penalize teams for going 2-0. Everybody should get a piece of (the championship money), in my opinion. ” I want both conventional and off-the-wall options considered: You could do one big 32-team bracket. Splitting teams into two brackets, like Nike did for both the PK80 and PK85, would also work, crowning a champion from each. Berger has already talked about round-robin pod play prior to Thanksgiving week, with the top teams from each group advancing to a final bracket in Vegas. What about a live group draw, a la the World Cup, to create the pods? Make it a spectacle to generate interest early. Give fans a November bracket pool to obsess over and compete in. College sports are set apart from their pro counterparts partially by the influx of student energy in the crowd. That group deserves to be part of what the Players Era is building at MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay. But ticket prices must be accessible. The Players Era should incentivize student attendance with student tickets. Grown adults aren’t usually game to crowd into one hotel room, sleep on the floor and share meals in order to save costs on a vacation. College students will do this in a heartbeat. Berger said this year’s crowds were “exponentially” better than last but added organizers are “definitely thinking about ways to engage student bodies so they can support their teams. ” There’s also a way to appeal to families. Maui, the Bahamas and other warm-weather MTE destinations are easy Feast Week sells to your family; who wouldn’t want to spend Thanksgiving in paradise? Sin City is a different animal. Casinos are like vortexes: You get sucked in and can go days without seeing sunlight. It’s easy to walk around and feel like you need a shower. Advertisement People think of Vegas and picture The Strip, but there’s a lot here other than sparkly nightlife. The tournament could and should promote more than just basketball. Putting together affordable ticket packages that include, say, two/three games and tickets to a show, is a great start. Families could get their fill of hoops and do something else — go to a concert, a performance (“The Lion King” is currently playing), a holiday special. There’s plenty that doesn’t involve a stage, too: Top Golf, an aquarium, a natural history museum. Bottom line: Filling more seats will add to the atmosphere, which would in turn make it more of a TV spectacle — interest begetting interest. Part of the charm of Maui, which naturally gets compared to Players Era, is all the non-basketball happenings. Coaches wear hula shirts, players swim with dolphins and participate in luaus. Videos of these outings fill in broadcasts around the basketball and inspire major FOMO (fear of missing out). There’s got to be a Vegas equivalent to this. Players could get mime lessons from the Blue Man Group, attend a scaled-down version of Vegas Showgirl bootcamp (that’s a real thing), ride the rollercoaster at New York, New York, learn how to deal blackjack to their teammates (the ship has sailed on gambling purity, so we might as well have some fun with it). It might seem cheesy … just like some of the Maui outings did  in 1984, when the tournament first started. Tradition takes time to build. Start now, and soon it’ll be second nature. My final idea is about outfits. If coaches wear hula shirts in Maui, why not glitzy casino vests in Vegas? I’m kidding, mostly, but now that you’re picturing it, you know that if Self, Mark Few or Kelvin Sampson showed up in Vegas sequins, you would have to be here to see it. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle Lindsay Schnell is a senior writer for The Athletic covering college sports. Before joining The Athletic she spent a decade as a national colleges writer, working previously at USA TODAY, Sports Illustrated and The Oregonian. She is a graduate of Oregon State University. Follow Lindsay on Twitter @Lindsay_Schnell