The tournament changing college hoops, plus the inevitable 49ersChris BranchTue, November 25, 2025 at 3:13 PM UTC·6 min readGood morning! Consider not trading your ace today.
While You Were Sleeping: The 49ers are good, copy and paste
The longer you watch a sport, the more you discover its maxims. In the NFL, it’s Patrick Mahomes’ late-game magic, or the Chargers glitching out when it matters most (sorry). We can add a new one to the list: the Kyle Shanahan-led 49ers just being good at football, no matter what.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSan Francisco’s 20-9 win over a pesky Panthers team last night was not spectacular on its face. Brock Purdy threw three interceptions. The Niners defense has been obliterated by injuries this year. Still, this game somehow never felt in question, and none of us were really surprised. The only bad outcome of last night was a postgame scuffle started by San Francisco wideout Jauan Jennings.
That wonky, depleted San Francisco team is now 8-4, two victories shy of giving Shanahan his fifth 10-win season in the last seven years. All four of those previous campaigns saw his team reach the conference championship game, and two ended with losses in the Super Bowl.
I don’t know if this team is worthy of that. But I’m also surprised it’s within shouting distance of those Rams we heaped praise upon yesterday — and this 49ers team is one of two to beat Los Angeles.
See our newest Power Rankings here, fresh off the presses this morning. Let’s move to hoops:
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFall Madness? Meet the new king of Feast Week
Every sport has milestones in its schedule. Season openers, midyear breaks, playoff brackets, championship games, etc. In college basketball, the Maui Invitational has been one of those hallmarks. The country’s best teams all go to Hawaii to play in the waves and figure out who’s actually good. Everyone loves it.
Yet that world is changing, like so many things in college sports. Its replacement is happening this week in another exotic locale, for differing reasons: Las Vegas.
Enter the Players Era Festival, a headliner of what the sport has taken to calling Feast Week. Brendan Marks, who’s covering the event for us, published a great explainer this morning on the new tournament upending the basketball calendar. Three things I took from it:
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFirst of all, there’s money. The tournament will pay each team a combined $1 million in NIL deals. That’s a first among these tournaments. College players are essentially pro athletes at this point, as the tournament’s founder said this week, and schools would rather go to Vegas and get paid than fly the entire team to Hawaii on their own dime.
The competition is unmatched … because of the money. This year’s tourney features 18 men’s teams (seven ranked in our Top 25) and four women’s teams (three ranked in our top five). Next year’s bracket jumps to 32 men’s teams.
This could be a model for the future. An early-season tournament, full of big-name matchups, drawing interest unparalleled outside of conference tournaments and March Madness, all in a period where ratings are usually low.
We’ve already seen great games, too. The No. 3 Houston men survived an upset bid from Syracuse in overtime yesterday, 78-74 ad Gonzaga zipped past Bama.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMake sure to read Brendan’s full story today. Change is already here.
News to Know
Duncan heads to NetflixESPN’s Elle Duncan, who’s been with the network nearly a decade, will become the face of Netflix’s new push into live sports, sources told The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand. Per our report, Duncan, 42, could be allowed to appear on other networks under her new proposed contract and could even see non-sports opportunities from the streaming giant. More in the full story.
Imai rules out Dodgers alreadyJapanese pitching prospect Tatsuya Imai, who was posted this offseason and is No. 10 on The Athletic’s Big Board, said yesterday he would rather beat the Dodgers than become the latest Japanese star to join them. “Winning against a team like that and becoming a World Champion would be the most valuable thing in my life,” the 27-year-old said in an interview with former MLB pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. Fascinating. Read his full comments.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMore news
The Pistons won their 13th straight game last night, tying a franchise record. To be clear, they’ve played a total of 17 games.
The Giants fired defensive coordinator Shane Bowen one day after their collapse Sunday against the Lions. The metaphorical house is almost clean.
The Saints invited former Ravens kicker Justin Tucker for a tryout, one year after Baltimore released him. Tucker served a 10-game suspension this year after multiple allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior.
Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase apologized for spitting … but not to Steelers defensive back Jalen Ramsey, whom Chase spat on.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementTexas Tech’s general counsel advised the school to vote against adopting the House settlement, which has been months in the making. The details are worth a read.
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said it’s not fair to assume the franchise turned a profit in 2025. Huh?
In other Japanese pitching news, Shohei Ohtani will play for his country again in next year’s World Baseball Classic. It’ll be hard to top his last showing.
Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty to rigging illegal poker games. Read the latest.
📰 Find more news here 24/7.
What to Watch
📺 UCL: Newcastle United at Marseille3 p.m. ET on Paramount+The Magpies are close to the top of the Champions League table and close favorites in this one, which probably makes this match the most interesting of the day. But I’ll let you be the judge.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement📺 NCAAM: Michigan vs. Auburn8:30 p.m. ET on TNTThis is probably the best and easiest game to watch today for those with a traditional work setup, but the Players Era tournament is going all day. See the day’s full slate.
📺 NBA: Clippers at Lakers11 p.m. ET on NBC and PeacockThe battle of Los Angeles is one of polar opposites, as the Lakers are still elite at 12-4 on the year — with the newly returned LeBron James in the fold now — while the Clips are lagging at 5-12. As Law Murray pointed out in this week’s Power Rankings, the Lakers have been excellent in crunch time. Is that sustainable?
Get tickets to games like these here.
Pulse Picks
Yes, the Brewers could trade another ace this offseason. Jim Bowden has five ideas of landing spots for Freddy Peralta.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementI loved this: The Bills are all in on a new Hallmark movie. We scored an interview with the team’s COO about the rom-com.
The one person who can help stop Ohio State’s losing streak to Michigan? It’s Matt Patricia.
The Blue Jays sponsored a boxing ring in Tokyo for a title fight. The only problem: The team went rogue.
Our Canadian friends will not be celebrating Thanksgiving this week. They will be panicking about their NHL teams.
Do we believe in the Raptors yet? Maybe we should.
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Connections: Sports Edition. Nerds. (I mean that lovingly.)
Most-read on the website yesterday: Panthers-49ers live blog.
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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