Next year’s Players Era Festival will have a new format, it was announced Thursday.
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The tournament, held in Las Vegas, will expand to 24 teams and be televised by ESPN.
St. John’s took part in the event a year ago and will do so again next season.
The new format will include two brackets: an eight-team grouping and another with 16 teams.
St. John’s will be a part of the latter that will be held Thanksgiving week.
The other teams include reigning national champion Michigan, Gonzaga, Louisville, Tennessee, Iowa State, Miami, Texas Tech, Baylor, San Diego State, Kansas State, Creighton, Maryland, TCU and Oregon.
Rick Pitino coaches during the St. John’s game on March 27. Jason Szenes for the NY Post
Last year’s 18-team format gave teams two scheduled games and a third based on record and scoring margin.
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Next season, there will be a bracket that determines the three opponents.
Teams receive $1 million for taking part in the tournament and will play a minimum of three games.
The opening-round pairings and brackets have yet to be determined.
St. John’s nonconference schedule is beginning to take shape.
It has agreed to host Arizona at the Garden on Dec. 5 and visit Alabama a week later.
That gives the Johnnies five potentially high-level games.
Earlier this week, St. John’s hosted top-50 big man Theo Edema, according to a source.
The 6-foot-11 Edema is in the 2027 class, although he could reclassify and be part of a program next season.
He attends Cushing Academy in Massachusetts.
