SAN DIEGO – The inaugural Players Era Festival officially announced matchups, tip times, and broadcast partners for its Thanksgiving week event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena within the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.
The event is divided into two four-team MTEs with each team getting three games within either the Power MTE or Impact MTE. The Aztecs, who are competing in the Power MTE, will play games against Creighton, Oregon and Texas A&M from Tuesday, November 26 through Saturday, November 30.
All four teams in the Power MTE reached the NCAA Tournament last season and each won its opening game. Creighton and San Diego State advanced to the Sweet 16 with the Aztecs losing to eventual champion Connecticut and the Bluejays falling to Tennessee.
SDSU and Creighton are scheduled to face off in the Power MTE’s opening game on Tuesday, November 26 at 11 a.m. (PT). The game between these familiar neutral site opponents will be broadcast on TBS. The two teams have played nine times in total, with Creighton holding a 5-4 lead in the all-time series, but the last four matchups have come on a neutral floor and San Diego State is 3-1 in those contests. Most recently, SDSU defeated the Bluejays, 57-56, in an Elite 8 game in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. Darrion Trammell hit the winning free throw with 1.2 seconds to play to send the Aztecs to the Final Four.
The following afternoon, Wednesday, November 27, at 1 p.m. (PT) the Aztecs will take on the Oregon Ducks with the game being shown on MAX. The teams have split the all-time series three games apiece. The only previous neutral site meeting was on December 17, 1977, at the Dayton Invite in Dayton, Ohio, where the Ducks came away with a 91-89 victory. This will be the first meeting since an, 80-68, SDSU win in Viejas Arena on December 2, 1997.
The final game for SDSU will be on Saturday, November 30 against Texas A&M, a program it has never played. The tip time is scheduled for 4 p.m. (PT) and will be broadcast on TNT.
Teams that finish with the same record within their prospective MTEs, tie breakers will be used to determine final standings, including head-to-head record, total point differential, points scored, points allowed and lastly, pre-tournament NET rankings.
Tickets for the event go on sale at 10 a.m. (PT) on Friday, September 13, through this link.