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The College Basketball Crown will return to Las Vegas on Wednesday for the second iteration of the playoff tournament, which features a $500,000 NIL prize pool.
Beyond the NIL money up for grabs, this year’s tournament will host some big names in men’s college hoops. Oklahoma, Colorado, Baylor, Minnesota, Stanford, West Virginia, Rutgers and Creighton will all battle for the championship.
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The Nebraska Cornhuskers win the Crown College Basketball Championship against the UCF Knights at T-Mobile Arena on April 6, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
Former Notre Dame Fighting Irish star and FOX Sports broadcaster LaPhonso Ellis told PK Press Club Digital that the Sooners are one of the teams he expects to come out on top.
“Part of the reason is that to win a tournament like this you first have to put in the effort,” Ellis said. “I think these guys, who have won six of their last seven games and missed (the NCAA Tournament), they have this sour taste in their mouth and you want to go out on a good note.”
Ellis said he expected West Virginia to be with Oklahoma in the final game.
“I had them against West Virginia in the final, but I gave them a slight edge over West Virginia because West Virginia is really good defensively, one of the top 25 most efficient defenses in the country, but I think at the end of the day when you have a defense that has improved as much as the senior defense has improved over the last couple of weeks, it comes down to your ability to be able to put it in the basket and Oklahoma does that at a high level,” he said. declared.
The NIL prize pool is one of the most important aspects of the tournament.
Sports analyst LaPhonso Ellis during the broadcast before the game between the Maryland Terrapins and the Michigan State Spartans at the XFINITY Center on February 29, 2020. (Tommy Gilligan/USA TODAY Sports)
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Ellis said it was a real encouragement to the players, as they have been off the field for a few weeks since missing the field of 68 that would have had them competing for a national championship.
“I think it’s very important because when you get to this point, remember, these teams that are in our tournament, they’ve been out of competition for almost two weeks and I think you have to have a certain level of buy-in, and some of that buy-in was created today. You have NIL, of course, in the shadows, and you have to find a real incentive to get these big brands in your tournament.”
Last year, the Nebraska Cornhuskers were the tournament champions.
The Fred Hoiberg-led program then parlayed that success into a 28-7 season in 2025-26. The Cornhuskers made the big dance and lost in the Sweet 16 to Iowa.
The college basketball crown begins Wednesday and ends Sunday. The games will be broadcast on FS1 and FOX.
The first round matchups are as follows:
- Oklahoma vs. Colorado (April 1, 8 p.m. ET)
- Baylor vs. Minnesota (April 1, 10:30 p.m. ET)
- Stanford vs. West Virginia (April 2, 8 p.m. ET)
- Rutgers vs. Creighton (April 2, 10:30 p.m. ET)
A Nebraska Cornhuskers player places the College Basketball Crown Championship Trophy on Juwan Gary #4 after their team’s 77-66 victory over the UCF Knights in the College Basketball Crown Tournament championship game at T-Mobile Arena on April 6, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Ian Maule/Getty Images)
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The first round matches will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The remainder of the tournament will take place at T-Mobile Arena.
