St. John’s men’s basketball to face Iowa State and Baylor in Players Era Festival event

The Red Storm will earn at least $1 million of NIL money for competing in the 18-team event in Las Vegas this November

The Red Storm have a challenging draw in the highest-profile regular season tournament in the 2025-26 campaign.

St. John’s announced earlier this week that they will face Big 12 stalwarts Iowa State and Baylor, along with a third opponent to be determined by their performance in those two games during this November’s Players Era Festival.

Running during Thanksgiving week, St. John’s will take on Iowa State on Monday, November 24 at 4:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. local time), then Baylor the following day at 5:00 p.m. ET (2:00 p.m. local time), afterwards playing their third and final game of the event on Wednesday, November 25. Game sites, broadcast designations, and ticket information will be announced at a later date.

Expanding from eight to 18 teams after last year’s inaugural tournament, the Players Era Festival guarantees $1 million in NIL compensation for each participating team and will award another $1 million to the winner of this year’s event.

Tie-breaking procedures for the expanded field have not been announced yet. Championship and consolation matchups could be decided similarly to last season’s group stage format, in which seeding was determined by a total point differential capped at 20 points per game, total points scored, and fewest points allowed.

Like St. John’s, both Iowa State and Baylor are coming off second-round exits in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Fifth-year head coach T.J. Otzelberger is bringing back a veteran trio of Joshua Jefferson (13.0 ppg in 2024-25), Milan Momcilovic (11.5 ppg), and Tamin Lipsey (10.6 ppg), while adding transfers like 2025 WAC Player of the Year Dominick Nelson from Utah Valley (14.4 ppg) and Mason Williams from Eastern Washington (13.9 ppg).

Baylor doesn’t have the luxury of retaining core players or any returning players, for that matter. Head coach Scott Drew is welcoming 14 new players to this season’s roster, including a class of 11 transfers headlined by Michael Rataj from Oregon State (16.9 ppg), Obi Agbim from Wyoming (17.6 ppg), Daniel Skillings Jr. from Cincinnati (9.2 ppg), and JJ White from Omaha (13.7 ppg). The Bears will also have five-star freshman small forward Tounde Yessoufou, who is ranked 14th in his class by 247Sports and played in the 2025 McDonald’s All-American Game.

Rick Pitino’s squad is hoping for a reversal of fortune against these two Big 12 powers who have knocked off St. John’s in recent seasons. Iowa State decisively won their last meeting by a score of 71-60 on December 4, 2022, a margin that flattered a unprepared Red Storm team and set the tone for Mike Anderson’s underwhelming final season in Queens.

Infinitely more competitive and heartbreaking was St. John’s stunning 99-98 loss to Baylor in last year’s Baha Mar tournament. The Bears climbed back from an 18-point deficit before Jeremy Roach drove the dagger through Red Storm fans’ hearts with a buzzer-beating triple at the end of the second overtime period.

The three-game stretch in Las Vegas is a part of one of the toughest non-conference slates in recent memory for the Johnnies. Other contests next season include home matchups against Ole Miss and Alabama, as well as a “neutral” site game against Kentucky in Atlanta, Georgia.