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Message: [QUOTE="OrangeXtreme, post: 5574043, member: 41"] [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2025/11/an-explanation-of-the-players-era-festivals-schedule-and-syracuses-potential-matchups.html[/URL] [I]All 18 teams will play on Monday and Tuesday at either the Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Ultra Arena or the MGM Grand’s Garden Arena. Fourteen teams will wrap up play on Wednesday, while the four bottom teams will be forced to spend an extra day in Vegas and play on Thanksgiving. Here are the basics of the tournament’s format and scheduling criteria: The 18-team field is split into two pods. Ten teams will play at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and the eight will play at the Michelob Ultra Arena. Syracuse is in the MGM Grand pod along with Rutgers, Tennessee, Kansas, Notre Dame, Houston, Gonzaga, Alabama, UNLV and Maryland. The teams in the Michelob Ultra Arena pod are Michigan, Creighton, Oregon, Baylor, St. John’s, Iowa State, Auburn and San Diego State. The team that finishes in first place in each pod will play each other in the overall Players Era championship game and the team that finishes in second place in each pod will play in the third-place game. Both of those games will be played Wednesday. The teams in these games will not be re-seeded to avoid conference conflicts or repeating regular season games (like Alabama vs. St. John’s or Houston vs. Auburn). That’s because additional money is at stake in the championship and third-place games. The teams that finish ranked Nos. 5-14 after two rounds will also play on Wednesday. There are some minor differences in how these matchups will be determined. Games between teams from the same conference will be avoided. The tournament guarantees that. The tournament will also attempt, but not guarantee, to avoid matchups between non-conference teams that play during the season. (Like Syracuse vs. Tennessee, which is part of the ACC/SEC Challenge next week). The bottom four teams will have to stay in Vegas and play on Thursday. Those games will be played at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (Vegas time) in the Michelob Ultra Arena.[/I] [/QUOTE]

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