After an encouraging 4-0 start, Notre Dame men’s basketball deflated. Currently.

The Irish lost 84-77 to Elon on Friday, falling to a team ranked 12th in the Coastal Athletic Association.

“Our defense let us down today,” Notre Dame head coach said Micah shrew said after the game.

However, the Irish have a chance to put some air back in the balloon this week as they are in the middle of their non-conference schedule. They flew to Las Vegas on Sunday for the Players Era Festival, a unique “NIL-driven” multi-team event (MTE) where they will compete against three top-class opponents.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Players Era Festival.

Game information for the Notre Dame in Players Era Festival

• Teams: Notre Dame (4-1, 0-0 ACC) vs. Rutgers (4-1, 0-0 Big Ten), No. 6 Houston (3-1, 0-0 Big 12) and TBD
• Possible third opponents: San Diego State, No. 21 Creighton, RV Oregon and No. 20 Texas A&M
• Dates: Tuesday, November 26 (Rutgers); Thursday, November 28 (Houston); Saturday, November 30th (still open)
• Just: 10:30 p.m. ET (Rutgers); 12:30 a.m. ET (Houston); TBA (TBA)
• Location: MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada
• TV: TBS
• Radio: 960 WSBT-AM in South Bend

How the “NIL-controlled” Players Era Festival works

Tournament format

Eight teams will travel to Las Vegas for the MTE and will be divided into two groups of four. Notre Dame’s impact group also includes Rutgers, Houston and Alabama. The other group, the “Power Group,” includes Oregon, San Diego State, Texas A&M and Creighton.

Each team will play two of the three other teams in its group, with Game 1 taking place on Tuesday and Game 2 taking place on Wednesday. After Game 2, each group is seeded 1st through 4th based on record, with tiebreakers being 1) head-to-head, 2) point difference capped at plus or minus 20 points per game, 3) total points scored, and 4) total points allowed .

On Saturday, the number 1 of the Impact Group will face the number 1 of the Power Group in the game for first place. The No. 2 seed and each group will compete in the third place game, and so on and so forth.

NIL aspect

Because of this, Notre Dame withdrew from its original MTE, the Rady Children’s Invitational in San Diego.

Each team will receive $1 million in name, image and likeness money for participating in the Players Era Festival, with an additional $500,000 for the champion.

If that sounds like “pay-for-play,” it is, and yes, “pay-for-play” is still technically against NCAA rules. But the Players Era Festival gets around that and is NCAA compliant. According to the Associated Press, “Players must appear at side events (all week long in Las Vegas) to receive ZERO money.”

Matchup Celebrities

Rutgers

• The Scarlett Knights suffer a shocking defeat of their own. Rutgers traveled to Kennesaw State as a 12.5-point favorite and lost 79-77 after a last-second turnover by the freshman forward Ace Bailey.

• Despite the fumble — which ended a game in which the Scarlett Knights trailed by as many as 21 points early in the second half — Bailey did everything Rutgers expected of him when he signed as the unanimous No. 2 player in the country became . The 1.90 meter tall forward has averaged 19.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game so far.

• Bailey joined combo guard Dylan Harper — the nearly unanimous No. 3 player in the 2024 class (ESPN has him at No. 4) — in an all-time great recruiting class for the Scarlett Knights. Harper is the son of Ron Harperwho won three NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls and is the brother of the former Rutgers star Ron Harper Jr. He is averaging 19.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game this season.

• Notre Dame and Rutgers have a common problem right now: recovery. The Scarlett Knights were outrebounded 54-33 and allowed 20 offensive possessions at Kennesaw State.

Houston

• As always, Houston’s defense is phenomenal. The Cougars allow fewer points per game (50.8) than anyone in the nation, nearly three full points ahead of No. 2 (Providence at 53.6).

• The Cougars also feature an extremely balanced offensive attack, with eight players averaging between 7.5 and 11.8 points per game. They are also an experienced team, led by an experienced striker J’Wan RobertsJunior Guard Emanuel Sharp and graduate student guards LJ Cryer.

• Cryer is an elite three-point shooter who has never shot less than 38 percent from distance in a season since his freshman year. However, Sharp makes threes at a truly unmatched rate. So far this season he has scored 11 out of 15 points, which corresponds to a rate of 73.3 percent.