AUBURN, Ala. – The Players Era has released the eight-team bracket for its second annual tournament in Las Vegas and Auburn will face West Virginia in the opening round on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at the Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
Introducing a new format this year in a true winner’s bracket tournament, Auburn or West Virginia will play the winner of Kansas and UNLV in the semifinals.
The other half of the bracket features Florida vs. Notre Dame and Houston vs. Rutgers.
The 24-team Players Era Championship is broken up into two weeks with the first eight (Auburn included) playing the week of Nov. 17-19, followed by 16 additional teams playing in two separate brackets during Thanksgiving week.
The opening round matchup pairs last year’s NIT champion (Auburn) against last year’s champion of The Crown (West Virginia), pitting two teams who won postseason tournaments to end the 2025-26 season.
This will be the sixth all-time meeting between Auburn and West Virginia with the Mountaineers holding a slight 3-2 advantage. WVU has won two straight in the series with the most recent matchup coming back in 2023 in Morgantown.
The announcement of the Players Era opponents adds to a non-conference schedule that also includes Auburn playing a neutral site game against Wisconsin in Nashville on Dec. 19.
Auburn’s entire non-conference schedule will be announced later this summer.